


The Care and Feeding of a Magical Creature

by HufflepuffHussy



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: All of the fanfiction stereotypes, But also pretty fluffy, Everyone being an adorable dork, F/M, Fake Marriage, Fluff and Smut, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Sorry, I'm shameless, Illness, Injury, Injury Recovery, Light BDSM, Mutual Pining, No really though it's pretty smutty, Romance, Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2017-02-22
Packaged: 2018-09-02 12:12:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 26,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8667106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HufflepuffHussy/pseuds/HufflepuffHussy
Summary: To Newt, Tina is every bit as wild and intriguing as one of his creatures. In the aftermath of Credence's death, Newt takes Tina traveling and tries to care for her as he would one of his animals.





	1. Chapter 1

Humans are a particularly curious and quarrelsome species of animal, but they are animals nonetheless. Newt knew this, logically, but somehow this knowledge did nothing to help him decode human behavior the same way he might that of an augrey or an erumpent. The human ways of expressing distress, or the need for sustenance, shelter, or a mate, were all simultaneously subtle and overwhelming for Newt, and generally not nearly so interesting as those same communications from his animals. He generally trusted that those needs would not concern him and be cared for by others, and that he could care for his own base animal needs in a suitable fashion on his own.

This changed when Newt met Tina. Though he knew better than to vocalize the comparison, watching Tina was like observing a new animal. She was beautiful, and when Newt could look at her, glancing shyly through his lashes, he saw her emotions plain across her face and her physical needs reflected in the movements of her body. Newt felt that if he could learn everything about her, catalogue each ebullient step or tired sigh, he might finally know something of use about humans. It was with this in mind that he invited Tina to help him release Frank, the thunderbird, back into his native habitat of the Sonoran desert.

Newt saw, in the aftermath of the events in the subway when they had failed to rescue Creedence, that Tina looked tired and sad, and something more subdued that caused her to worry the skin around her fingernails and snap at Queenie with little provocation. It reminded him of the way some brooding animals, upon the death of a nestling, would mourn and fuss over their remaining young. He felt that way too, sometimes, he thought to himself. What would help Tina would be saving something, the accomplishment of setting things right. 

"I was wondering, perhaps, if you might want to accompany me when I travel West to bring Frank home. Only, I seem to have a knack for getting myself into tricky situations on this trip, and an auror escort might keep me out of trouble". His lips quirked into a small smile as his eyes slid quickly from her shoulder to her face, gauging her reaction.

And so, Tina requested an extended leave of absence from work and said goodbye to a tearful Queenie. They set off by rail, Newt's case of creatures tucked carefully under the lower bunk of the sleeper compartment they were sharing-- platonically, to save costs, they told one another.

They passed the time in silence, that first afternoon, Newt working on his book, Tina watching the changing landscape slide past the window and wondering how it had never occurred to her before to leave New York. She felt ashamed that she had failed to save Creedence. She felt she might never save anyone, and that perhaps trying to save people was not a worthwhile endeavor. It came in waves though-- one minute she would watch numbly as a factory town gave way to unpopulated agricultural land, and the next she would feel a sick anxiety that burned out the bottom of her stomach and twisted her breath in her chest. 

It was during one of these small panic attacks that she felt Newt's hand on hers, gently prizing the hem of her coat which she had been worrying furiously from her fingers. "I need to feed my creatures, would you like to help me?" He asked quietly.

"Yes, I would like that very much." She answered.

Locking the door to their compartment with a quick charm, Newt opened his case and they descended down into the warm, herb-and-earth scented menagerie that was his pride and joy.

Tina had only been inside a couple of times before, and always with Jacob and Queenie. It was still tremendously foreign, and more than a little disorienting to still feel the rumble of the train in this vast labyrinth of ecosystems. While she had marveled at a great many of the animals, this was the first time she had had opportunity to imagine Newt here-- in his 'natural habitat' she thought to herself with a small smile. There was a simple kitchen area, with an apron-front sink and a large cast iron stove. Newt stood here now, making quick work of grinding what looked like bright pink acorns in a gigantic mortar. Behind a large damask curtain was a simple bedroom set-up-- a full brass bed with white sheets and a worn quilt, a ewer and basin, and behind a screen she could see the tank and chain of a flush toilet.

"Do you sleep down here?" She asked, somewhat incredulous. She knew he spent a great deal of time in the field, but she'd always pictured him in a tent. The idea of him 'setting up camp' somewhere very wild-- a jungle or the Serengeti-- simply by opening his suitcase and stepping inside, seemed laughable.

"If I'm somewhere safe. I pitch a muggle tent around it, just for formality I suppose. And I do set up wards." He answered, with a small amount of defensiveness in his voice. He began to pour some medicinal smelling brown liquid into the kernels he'd ground, making a thoroughly unappetizing porridge. "I like to sleep in the same bed every night. And my creatures like to know where I am."

Tina trotted along behind him for the next hour or so, patting the beasts and letting them snuffle at her hair or lick her outstretched hand or nuzzle at her pockets for treats (she could tell Newt had them quite spoiled). She loved watching him speak to the animals. The way he knew just how to stroke or signal or croon or (in some cases) sing and 'dance' to reduce each beast-- many of them quite fearsome-- to a joyful, puppy-like devotion was entrancing. She rather wondered if he would have the same virtuosic skill with human animals if spared the complex social rituals of the adult world; perhaps he could dandle an infant or play clapping games with a child with the same studied, indulgent faithfulness with which he was currently letting some cream-colored puffskeins lick the insides of his nose. Tina brushed the thought aside, and laughed a little to break the tension of her embarrassment. Newt clearly thought she was laughing at him, and a blush came to his freckled cheeks.

Newt, for his part, loved watching Tina interact with his creatures. Every gasp of surprise or exclamation of delight from her sent a jolt of excitement through his stomach. When she asked questions (and she had many) he felt embarrassingly pleased with himself for being able to provide the answer, and, he realized with amazement, he felt none of his usual fear that he was boring her or annoying her with his passion. Her enthusiasm was genuine, and for Newt, it was the loveliest thing he could imagine. 

The suitcase was a strange space, to be sure. As best as Tina could tell, it was most similar to a vast warehouse, but with internal walls and structures, as well as various atmospheric charms, mimicking different biomes. There was even a small creek and a damp marshy area. Each of the animals seemed to have not only the climate and denning materials of their choice, but appropriate room to roam. Tina couldn't help but be impressed by the undetectable extension charms and transfiguration necessary to create this space, and wondered again at the circumstances surrounding Newt's expulsion-- for he was clearly a skilled wizard.

"Tina..." Newt began hesitantly as they climbed back up the stairs into their train compartment, "I wonder if you might be willing to extend our journey by a few days after we release Frank. There's a man near Sedona with a breeding pair of Peruvian Vipertooths and... well, they're better documented than most due to Dragon Pox of course, but no one's really written about their nesting habits. It's a rare opportunity for me."

"I have four months off work, Newt, I'm happy to do anything with you." She surprised herself with her uncharacteristic spontaneity. She surprised Newt with her phrasing: 'anything *with you*'. He replayed her response over and over in his head that evening as he lay in the small bottom bunk, enjoying the small shivers of pleasure it brought him. 

"Newt?" Tina whispered from the top bunk.

Newt froze, realizing he'd been tossing about restlessly. "Yes?" He answered.

"It's fine if you'd rather sleep in your case. I can hold down the fort out here."

"Oh, right. Thanks". Newt didn't see that he had any option but to go down and do just that, and as he fell asleep in his familiar bed, three orphaned kneazles settling into the space behind his knees, he tried not to think about how much he would have preferred the unfamiliarity of listening to Tina's breath becoming slow as she fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Tina awoke the next morning to the sound of the compartment door sliding open.

"Good morning. I've already fed the animals, if you want to come down I have breakfast things from the dining car and coffee brewing." Newt said with sheepish brightness as he saw her disheveled head emerge from under the coverlet. One of his arms was full of plates.

Tina barely had time to register his words before Newt had disappeared into depths of his suitcase. She looked around blearily and then blushed crimson when she remembered that she'd spent the night in the bottom bunk after Newt had retreated into his case and that surely, Newt would have noticed her change in position. She had several feeble lies available to her-- ready access to the water closet, her superior vigilance due to years of auror training-- but she felt Newt would see right through them. She had been chilled, and wanted to soak up any lingering body heat he'd left behind-- and the fact that the lower bunk still smelled distinctly of Newt didn't hurt. Cursing herself for not packing a robe, she wrapped herself in an oversized wool cardigan and followed Newt into his case.

Newt had been up with the sun (artificial inside his case, but no less bright). He added making sure that Tina was fed to his mental list of morning tasks, and refused to let the new chore carry any emotional weight, despite his plan for its completion being the end result of an hour of sleepless deliberating the night before. When his (diurnal) creatures had been given their food and provisions had been acquired, Newt set to work preparing breakfast for himself and Tina. He had only dared a quick glance at her on his way through the compartment, but he hoped she wouldn't dawdle over-long on unnecessary grooming activities like getting dressed or brushing her hair.

When she padded barefoot down the steep ladder-stairs and sat cross legged on the chair at the rough-hewn wooden table, Newt felt a flare of fondness in his gut to see she was still in her pajamas. He offered her a worn Limoges tea cup full of coffee already doctored with the small amount of cream she preferred and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"I take tea, usually, of course, but... well... when in Rome, as the muggles say". Newt stammered. Tina took a sip, and was unsurprised to find that the coffee was amongst the best she'd ever had. 

They spent the next two days in similar fashion-- Newt observed Tina carefully, finding thoughtful ways to care for her and offer her distraction whenever melancholy threatened to drown her. 

They would sit most of the day in the train car as Newt would read to her from his book. They sat shoulder to shoulder on the small bench so that Tina could admire his careful illustrations, but their proximity wasn't lost on either of them. Tina would tell Newt stories about being an auror in New York, and Newt found himself transfixed in a way he rarely was by tales of people. Unlike stories told by his brother-the-war-hero, Tina was never the main character in her story, and they were rarely stories of valor and daring-do. More often, they were warm and humorous-- stories of accidental magic cast by tantruming children, "dark objects of great power" sold to the gullible to enhance sexual prowess with disastrous results, or the wild explanations muggles came up with to explain perfectly ordinary magical occurrences. Newt could see that Tina cared for the people in her city, wizards and no-majs alike, the same way he cared for his beasts; he loved her for it. 

In the mornings and evenings, they would feed the animals and Newt would tell Tina about their origins. Many, like Frank, had been trafficked or were otherwise being rehabilitated by Newt. Tina could hear in Newt's voice the empathy he felt for each creature, even those who seemed custom-built to resist affection. She watched him one evening making calming little sputtering noises like the crackling of wet wood in a hearth as he rubbed salve on a giant fire crab that seemed to have some sort of carapace-dandruff. The fire crab shifted its weight around in a strange little gig and butted its head against Newt's waistcoat. This creature, antithetical to cuddling though it was, loved Newt; she loved him for it.

They spent their nights as they had their first on the train-- Newt in his suitcase bedroom, Tina on the lower bunk of their train compartment, both of them restless with the knowledge that the other was so close, replaying the days conversations in their heads and anxious for the morning.

"Oh, hell!" Tina cried on their fourth evening aboard the train. She had been chasing down some chittering diricawl chicks so that Newt could powder their feathers with anti-mite powder and had followed the birds-- who kept popping in and out of visibility-- right into the marshy pond where she'd tripped over a plimpy and fallen.

Newt smiled into his collar when she found him at the potting shed, still wet and muddy, her hair festooned with algae. "You can see why people think I'm crazy, carrying on the way I do."

Tina sneezed and sighed with bemusement. "Do me a favor and dry me off? I left my wand in the kitchen after the jarvey tried to steal it from me this morning".

"Actually, if you like, I can do you one better than that." Newts cheeks grew pink and he brought her around the shed to an old claw foot tub that was clearly used for washing animals. "Scourgify!" He said, scrubbing it white with a wave of his wand. He turned on the tap and waved his wand again, thick white bubbles appearing on the steaming surface. "You have a real bath, I'll go and get dinner ready. 

Cold and dirty as she was, Tina couldn't deny herself the pleasure of a hot bath. Once she was sure that Newt was safely in another part of the case, she stripped of her wool trousers and white rayon blouse, groaning when she realized that her small breasts had been quite visible to Newt through the thin, soaked fabric. She sighed with contentment as she lowered herself into the hot foaming bath, the heat making her cold joints and bloodless fingers and toes ache and itch. 

When she'd rinsed out her gritty hair and sat awhile, letting the bath cool around her (though the enchanted bubbles stayed as thick as ever) Tina began to look around her for a towel. "Hell again!" She cried, realizing there was none, and that she was still wandless. "Newt?" She called, drawing her knees up to her chest, though the bubbles preserved her modesty.

Newt appeared a minute later and seemed to immediately grasp her predicament. "Oh, Merlin's Beard, I am sorry." He said, immediately turning away and covering his eyes with one hand. He shrugged off his long blue coat and magicked it towards her. His cheeks were burning and he was already striding quickly away as she stood and caught it. "Dinner will be ready in 10 minutes!" He called over his shoulder.

Newt was furious with himself. Tina was kind and smart and lovely, and he had been convincing himself he was unaffected by those qualities for days. Seeing her wet and disheveled had caused him to feel more 'base animal instincts' than he'd felt since puberty. The mere thought that Tina was naked and bathing behind his potting shed, and now would be wearing his coat with nothing between her pale goose-pimpled flesh and its soft silk lining caused blood to pool in his nethers in a most inconvenient and undignified fashion. He could not go on like this. He splashed cold water on his face and buried it in a dish towel, scrubbing furiously to distract himself. 

He turned to find Tina mere feet behind him, his coat enveloping her lithe frame, her clavicle thrown into stark relief by the lamplight and looking particularly appealing.

"Thank you for your help with my creatures. I've made potato and leek soup for dinner." Said Newt with as much nonchalance as he could muster. He continued, a quaver in his voice as he brought his eyes to meet hers: "Do you... I would very much like to kiss you right now, do you think that might be acceptable?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first time writing, gentle feedback very much appreciated.


	3. Chapter 3

"Thank you for your help with my creatures. I've made potato and leek soup for dinner." Said Newt with as much nonchalance as he could muster. He continued, a quaver in his voice as he brought his eyes to meet hers: "Do you... I would very much like to kiss you right now, do you think that might be acceptable?"

Tina gasped as understanding of Newt's words hit her. Wrapped in his coat, warm with his body heat and thick with the scent she had come to associate with him-- not unpleasant sweat, earth, and the sandlewood and anise soap he preferred-- she felt enveloped by his presence, and yet she wanted more. She nodded mutely but enthusiastically, and relief washed over Newt's face. He strode forward with far more confidence than Tina could have foreseen given his tentative query, one hand coming to her waist, the other cradling the back of her neck as he bent down and pressed his lips to hers.

His soft dry lips were firm, insistent, and not at all inexpert as she had expected. She mewled softly as his tongue sought entry into her mouth, and brought her own hands to his cheeks. His calculated explorations left her breathless jelly-legged as he finally pulled away, and while she had never been the swooning type, Tina could have sworn she saw stars. 

Newt on the other hand seemed to snap abruptly back to reality. Giving her waist a quick squeeze with his broad hand, he turned away. "I'm so sorry, Tina, I really don't know what came over me." He said brusquely, beginning to ladle soup into two earthenware bowls. His no-nonsense tone was not matched by his hands, which shook as he continued: "You're very beautiful and interesting. I've never met someone like you, and I want to know absolutely everything about you, and... well, I'm afraid that wasn't the right place to start. I'm not very good at this. What humans do, I mean. I think I may have gotten it all out of order."

Tina's eyes went wide. "It's fine, Newt. I like you too. I wanted you to kiss me." She accepted a bowl of soup from him and sat down at the table, tucking her feet into his coat. She waited for him to respond, and when he still looked hesitant she said "we can do this in whatever order you want, Newt. I really do like you too. You are human too, you know-- you can't muck it up too badly." His eyes met hers then and something like pain flashed across them. But he lowered them again in short order, nodding. He reached for her hand and laid a soft kiss on her palm, then another on the inside of her wrist.

After eating in silence for a few minutes, Newt began to rehash their plans for releasing Frank the next day. "We'll get off in Yuma, and then apparate to just outside of Tucson. There's an ironwood forest there that I think Frank will love. We can take a picnic lunch and make sure he gets settled in alright-- and I want to show you the cactuses, and there are petroglyphs made by muggles depicting magical creatures that I want to see. It'll be too late to try to find J. Killbourne then-- that's the man with the Peruvian Vipertooths-- but we can apparate closer and set up camp in Oak Creek Canyon for the night. Does that sound alright with you?"

Tina was startled by the abrupt dismissal of their kiss and the confession of mutual interest that had followed, but knew that it had thrown Newt. It was clear that he had kissed her impulsively, and she knew by now that he would have preferred to approach matters of the heart as he did everything else: with careful planning. What she didn't know was how to convey to Newt that the spontaneity hadn't scared her. If anything, it had sparked a desperate yearning in her stomach. She very much wanted to kiss him again. Always having left the wantonness to Queenie, however, Tina merely nodded. "Yes, that sounds fine" she said. "I look forward to it. I think I'll go up and make sure I have everything packed before I turn in." She climbed the ladder slowly, thinking Newt might call her back, but he did not.

Newt scrubbed up without magic. It was a sort of penance for his brashness, though he never would have admitted it. He had kissed Tina. And he handled the aftermath very poorly. He wouldn't be surprised if Tina were quite upset with him. 

When he settled himself into bed sometime later, shooing away the wand-stealing jarvey as he did, he cast the charm that would allow him to hear what was going on outside his case. He used it frequently in the field, both to track his animals and to stay ahead of the poachers that were often after the same beasts as he. Newt didn't know what he expected to hear-- the sounds of Tina's clothing being shoved angrily into her trunk, or perhaps even crying. 

Nothing could have prepared him for the soft sighs of female pleasure.

Newt froze. He should not, would not, listen to Tina pleasuring herself-- though the sounds were sweeter than anything he had ever heard in his life, and an erection strained against the seam of his pajama pants. He reached under his pillow for his wand, fully intending to dissolve the charm, when unmistakably, amongst the stifled moans and sighs, he heard Tina gasp "Newt!".

Newt came undone at that. Throwing off his quilt and wrenching down his pajama pants, Newt grabbed his erection and furiously tugged at himself. He came quickly, with a guttural roar he knew Tina would not be able to hear, spilling his sticky seed across the wirey ginger hairs on his toned stomach.

He couldn't hear Tina now over his own ragged breathing, and he waved his wand, dissolving the listening charm. He walked over to the ewer and basin, magicked to keep water warm, and cleaned himself with a flannel. Newt was consumed by shame. He wiped down his whole chest, glistening as it now was with cold sweat. Why couldn't he muster even a small amount of self-control around this woman? He had intended to approach her with the measured, scientific objectivity that was due magical creatures (for she was a magical creature, he thought to himself with uncharacteristic poeticism). All it had taken for that to go right out the window were a few intelligent questions about his beasts and the barest hint of her small brown nipples through a wet blouse. Theseus had been right. Newt was practically a beast himself.

Tina, lying on the small bunk and still wrapped in Newt's fragrant coat, brought herself to orgasm twice that night and fell into a calm doze. She giggled at what Queenie would say if she could read Tina's mind. Tina was not a virgin, but she had never sought out boys the way Queenie had and she had *never* been so reduced as she was by Newt-- odd though he was.

She really was looking forward to releasing Frank with him the next day, and hoped Newt would not feel too awkward given what had passed between them before dinner. They had told one another that they liked each other. There should have been something.... more there. Newt's response had been cryptic at best. Still, though. Tina remembered the worshipful way he had kissed her palm and then her wrist with a shiver of delight. She felt certain she could ensure that he wouldn't regret acting on his impulse to kiss her.

She wondered, before drifting into one of the first dreamless sleeps she had enjoyed in a while, how they would handle sleeping arrangements while camping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first time writing, gentle feedback very much appreciated.


	4. Chapter 4

Newt and Tina managed to disembark from the train and make their way to a place from which they could safely disapparate the next morning without having said much more than 'good morning' to one another.

"Ready?" Newt asked, turning to face Tina and placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Yes" Tina confirmed, and he touched his forehead to hers for the briefest of seconds. With a pop he transferred them both via side-along apparition to the most foreign landscape Tina could have imagined.

It certainly wasn't barren-- low scrubby ironwood and paloverde, tall saguaros, and lethal-looking cholla covered the ground so thickly that one couldn't walk in any direction in a straight line. But the word that Newt had used, 'forest' would never have occurred to Tina. The temperature was warm, and the weak autumn light was incongruous with the cloudless sky and balmy breeze. Newt stripped out of his coat (Tina had returned it with a mumbled thanks on the platform) and rolled up his shirtsleeves. "Right, no reason to prolong the inevitable." He said and stepped into his case to retrieve Frank.

Tina didn't follow him, choosing instead to continue taking in the alien landscape. The plain on which she stood was surrounded by low craggy hills, but she had never been somewhere where the horizon was so far away. Tina knew that Newt would be sorry to see Frank go. As much as he tried to maintain the cool removal of a scientist in his writings, Newt's creatures were his friends and his confidants. He appreciated in them intricate patterns and complicated beauties that were not accessible to the average wizard. Observing his last, formal goodbyes to Frank would be... indecent somehow.

"Step back!" She heard Newt call from the case, and did so just in time. Frank burst forth with a cry of (Tina assumed) delight. Newt followed close behind, wand clutched in his teeth. He shielded his eyes from the sun and watched as Frank circled overhead, his magnificent tails glinting in the dry desert air. Frank swooped low several times, chittering his thanks to Newt. When Tina glanced over at him, she saw that his eyes were wet and red-rimmed.

"Chubasco..." said Newt, as the formerly cloudless sky grew dark and a strong wind blew prickles from the cactuses. "That's what they call it here, when there are autumn thunderstorms". Tina felt a swell of fondness for Newt and the comfort he took in knowing facts. She moved closer to him and put her hand between his broad shoulders. They stood like that a long while, the air filling with the smell of creosote and petrichor. When finally he turned to her and they apparated again, the rain had masked his tears and there was a small dry spot on the back of his shirt where her hand had been.

They spent the rest of the afternoon in a dry creek bed, surrounded by the syrupy rotting smell of damp cottonwood leaves and eating tamales rich with lard that Newt had bought from a gap-toothed no-maj woman outside the train station that morning. Sitting on a canvas tarp, Tina dozed as Newt sketched the surrounding landscape and occasionally pointed out birds and animals to Tina. He was quite as interested in non-magical creatures as well, it turned out, but felt their documentation should be left to muggle naturalists.

As Tina drifted into a true nap, Newt let his charcoal pencil start tracing the soft contours of her face into his notebook. He sketched the soft waves of her hair, admonishing himself for wishing to run his fingers through them. Tina had seemed so unperturbed by their kiss yesterday. That wasn't the right word, even... she had relished it, as evidenced by the noises he had heard from her the night before as she'd brought herself to climax while he, unbeknownst to her, had done the same. That relish was not confusing to Newt, but it was concerning. He doubted very much whether he would be able to resist kissing her again, taking it farther even. And that would be unacceptable.

Newt Scamander was a dangerous man. Or he could be, he believed. His desires had gotten him into trouble before. When given the opportunity to impress (or impregnate, more accurately, Newt thought with a blush) the objects of their affection, beasts are driven to all kinds of irrational, ridiculous, and risky behaviors. Newt had proven that he was no more above acting against his own self interest when in love than an erumpant in rut. He had taken the fall for Leta Lestrange's "experiment", and his brother Theseus took every opportunity to remind him that his misguided act of affection had not paid off. "You know why you're so fond of your creatures?" Theseus would say "They're like you. They have no self-control, no understanding of the future beyond their next feed or fuck."

Newt shuddered involuntarily and pinched at his eyes, trying to shake off the rancor caused by remembering his brothers words. Tina was dissimilar to Leta in many ways, but the fire Tina had kindled in him over the past weeks was unlike anything he had ever known. He could only imagine what foolishness he could commit or danger he could put her in if he allowed the fire to be fueled. As Tina stirred in her sleep and uttered a few small noises of distress at her dreams, Newt resolved to tell her... all of it. That he could take care of her, feed her and protect her and learn how to make her happy as he would one of his creatures, but that he wasn't qualified to care for her the way humans cared for one another. He couldn't be trusted to understand the subtleties, to not go too far.

Tina awoke with a start and swore, sitting up clearly disoriented. "I can't stop dreaming about the subways, when they killed Credence." she sighed, pulling at her hair as she bowed her head. "I could have done it differently... Calmed him more quickly or communicated with the aurors more effectively. Something should have been different. He didn't have to die."

"That's not true. The first part. You did as best you could." Newt searched himself for the right words to make Tina understand how he had admired her in that moment in the subways. She had displayed fierce compassion and impressive level-headedness despite her fear. He had never seen such bravery in a human. He saw it all the time in beasts-- especially nesting mothers-- that unquestioning willingness to face something huge and unknown for the sake of something vulnerable and young. He didn't know how to compliment her without comparing her to animals. He knew enough about humans to know that they didn't usually take such comparisons as compliments.

"Tina...." Newt paused, trying to find words as she clutched at the picnic blanket and looked utterly distraught. "What would help you right now?" 

"Could you hold me?" Tina was too upset by her dream to overthink it. She knew the world had come crashing down on her, even in this idyllic place, and she knew that Newt Scamander had the power to make her feel calm and present again.

Newt scooted over to her and lay down, his arms outstreached. She curled into his chest, her face and hand resting on the mustard corduroy of his waistcoat. She inhaled deeply, smelling him and smelling the fragrant air around them. She looked up at him through her lashes and saw that his eyes were closed. She admired the beginnings of laugh lines around his mouth (what was it that made him laugh?). She counted his freckles. Slowly, she came back to herself. 

They lay together for some time. Tina's body grew calm in his warm stalwart presence. Newt's body (though he lay perfectly still) thrummed with manic excitement at the feeling of her nestled in the crook of his arm, his fingers tangling themselves in her hair. 

The shadows grew long around them, and they both knew they'd have to move soon. They had to find a place to camp for the night, set up wards, feed the creatures, return to pretending that their relationship was fond but otherwise professional (but for the kiss). It felt impossible to Tina. "Newt?" She started hesitantly. "Tonight when we camp... Could we sleep like this?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really enjoying writing this, and I appreciate your kind feedback. Thank you for the encouragement!


	5. Chapter 5

They set up camp on wide riverbank rimmed with sycamore, their autumn leaves yellow against the twilight. The shadows of the coming night made the surrounding sandstone formations too dull to make out, but their looming shapes were impressive nonetheless. 

True to his word, Newt produced a small muggle tent and set it up with magic. He placed a wide wards to hide them from wizards and muggles alike as Tina gazed up at the stars. Having lived in a city her whole life, she could never have anticipated the richness and depth of the milky way above them. It would be a moonless night, and as darkness fell the air became very cold. Climbing into the suitcase, placed in the center of the small tent, Tina was grateful for its perpetual warmth-- or at least the warmth in the section that comprised Newt's living quarters.

They fed the beasts, and the task went quickly as Tina was now able to work independently at providing the animals with their varied and complicated diets. She had her special favorites-- the mooncalves, the kneazles, the puffskeins-- and Newt didn't seem to mind that she'd made herself mistress of the cuter and furrier members of his menagerie. 

She finished before him and began setting out a simple supper of bread, cheese, and jam from Newt's small larder. She put on a kettle to boil for Newt's tea, and felt giddy and foolish for enjoying the domesticity of it all. She had asked him, earlier, if they might sleep in the same bed that evening. Newt had made a noncommittal humming noise, but had pulled her closer to his chest and inhaled the scent of her hair-- stopping just short of kissing the top of her head. Tina supposed this was as much confirmation as she could expect before he had time to integrate the idea into his plans.

Newt, on the other hand, was far less placid. As he set up camp and made his rounds feeding, checking over, and playing with his animals he practiced his speech in his head-- the one where he would tell Tina what he had done for Leta Lestrange, and warn her of the implications this had about his true nature. Newt could not be trusted with something as fragile and unpredictable as another person's heart. He would rather die miserable and alone than prove to the world (himself, his family) desire made him an impulsive fool with no care for consequences. Over and over he rehearsed what he would say. He had to make Tina understand.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard" said Tina, roughly an hour later, after Newt had delivered his impassioned speech over after dinner tea and cookies. "You made an impulsive decision over a girl who didn't love you back when you were a teenager and because there were consequences, now you're what... going to die alone? That's crazy."

Newt felt as though he'd had the wind knocked out of him. He'd never told anyone this the way he'd told Tina-- without hope of being forgiven. And here she was summing up the entire situation perfectly well, seeming to grasp the enormous gravity of what he had done, and... not caring. "Tina, you don't understand, it was like I was an animal... I didn't care about the consequences, I just wanted to protect her. And... I hoped she would love me for it." He said weakly.

"You love animals more than anyone I could ever have imagined. Surely you forgive your creatures when they act on instinct. Surely you know that humans are animals and should be given the same considerations-- yourself included." Tina paused, ready to list all of the attributes she admired in Newt that were just as driven by instinct: his curiosity, his courage, his ability to help and heal the most vulnerable creatures. But before she could begin, he was kneeling on the ground between her legs, his hands coming to her hips as his lips reached up and met hers.

He kissed her like he was kissing the hem of a saint. "Thank you, Tina. Would you come to bed with me?"

They readied themselves for sleep sweetly and separately. Tina brushed her teeth and changed into her pajamas behind the screen while Newt cleaned up the kitchen area. Not knowing what else to do, Tina climbed in between the covers to wait for him, luxuriating in the crisp white sheets, the weight of the heavy quilts, and the room to stretch out after several nights on the cramped train bunk. 

When Newt drew back the curtain and entered, he dimmed the lamps with his wand before taking off his coat, and waistcoat, and finally his shirt. His chest, sprinkled with coppery hairs, was broad and muscular. It was clearly the result of years of chasing after and wrangling magical beasts. Tina could see that he had several scars of varying ages-- some the result of long gashes, and some round burn scars from a dragon or a fire crab peppering his left hip. The sight of him practically made her mouth water. He looked up at her sheepishly, and noting her chaste blue top, he transfigured his trousers into striped pajama pants. 

Tina grinned indulgently at him. "Come to bed, Beast".

Newt climbed in next to her and seemed unsure of what to do with himself. Tina spread her arms as he had done earlier, and pulled his face into the crook of her neck, his muscular arm wrapping around her slim waist. They lay like that, and Tina earnestly tried to fall asleep like the good girl she had always had to be to balance out Queenie. But Newt's hot breath and day-old stubble on her neck made Tina ache with want. And his thumb lazily stroking the underside of her breast, the callouses catching on the slippery silk of her pajama top, was very distracting. She thought perhaps he was unaware of what he was doing-- and the effect it had on her-- until she felt his erection against her leg.

Tina rubbed her thighs together, hoping for more, but Newt seemed to relish teasing her. "Please, Newt!" She gasped when she could no longer take it, and his lips made contact with her pulse point while his fingers moved up to stroke her hardened nipple. Tina could tell Newt was grinning with triumph as he nibbled and licked his way down her neck and across her clavicle, his clever fingers pinching and flicking at her nipple the whole time. He moved himself over her, his thigh resting between hers. When he removed his hand from her breast to begin unbuttoning her top, Tina groaned with frustration and ground her cunt against his thigh wantonly. Newt had the gall to chuckle low in his throat at that.

"You're beautiful, Tina." He whispered, admiring his handiwork as her shirt came completely undone. Tina reached for Newt's hip, hoping to return the favor, but Newt shied away. "Not tonight" he said gently. "Tonight I just want to watch you. Please.

Newt continued his slow, worshipful exploration of Tina's torso with his mouth. Kissing around her small breasts, drawing inward towards the taught buds of her nipples, he paused often-- listening to the changes in her breath, the small keening noises of want that she made. Through her haze of lustful abandon, Tina realized that Newt was carefully learning her body; like a true scientist he measured and catalogued every reaction. When he finally pinched one nipple while gently grasping the other between his teeth as he ran his tongue across it, Tina knew she was done for. She let out a small wail and wriggled beneath him, desperate to remove her pajama pants.

Newt acquiesced and moved lower, pulling her pajama pants down with him until he was laying on his elbows between Tina's (now bare) legs. Tina's desperation gave way to nervousness for the first time as she realized Newt had no intentions of moving back up. Tina was by no means virginal. She had some idea of what Newt might have in mind. But she had never let a man do *that* before.

Newt was stroked her legs slowly and looked up at her face, waiting for her breathing to return to normal. He smiled when she finally gave him a fevered nod and nudged her legs wider apart, placing a kiss on the damp patch of curls above her sex. Slowly, ever so slowly, Newt kissed and licked her trembling thighs, moving closer to the heat of her center. Tina gasped and bucked her hips when at last his tongue met her sensitive outer lips. Newt waited again for her breathing to slow, and continued his probing exploration of her folds, always avoiding the one spot where she most wanted his tongue. 

Tina swore and moaned like a thing possessed. "Please" she gasped. Newt brought two rough fingers to her sopping cunt and pushed them in. Her taught inner muscles fluttered around him and she dug her heels into the mattress, desperate for release. "*Please*, Newt" she begged again. And with that, he crooked his fingers and sucked her aching clit into his mouth. Tina came with a scream, her body rocking around his hand and his mouth for several seconds before she stilled, whispering his name raggedly as her muscles still spasmed around his fingers. 

Newt lay a chaste kiss on her thigh, and moved up to cradle her in his arms. Tina tried desperately to resist sleep, but it washed over her quickly. Newt lay awake a while longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my stars. Again, this is my first time writing so that was also my first sex scene. Let me know what you thought.


	6. Chapter 6

Despite his bold and masterful orchestration of her pleasure the night before, Newt awoke next to Tina feeling not as though he had claimed her, but as though she had revealed something wild, beautiful, and mercurial about herself. He had discovered a thousand new questions about her. It was with awe and trepidation that he resolved to learn the answers to them, should she allow it.

He rose before her, tucking the quilts in around her shoulders so she wouldn't get cold, and began his now-usual morning task of letting her coffee brew while he fed his animals. With Tina in his bed and the promise of observing Peruvian Vipertooths-- a breed of dragon made rare by efforts to eradicate dragon pox-- Newt felt the invincible good cheer that comes of having everything go your way. His animals sensed his good spirits and (those who were not above such things) cavorted and played and nudged at his knees as if in congratulations. Sitting a minute in the meadow where his mooncalves were sleeping off their night's dances in a muddled heap, Newt had the sudden inspiration to gather a few flowers and bring Tina breakfast in bed.

Tina awoke to a gentle kiss on the forehead and the smell of coffee and toast with marmalade. Newt had arranged her breakfast, as well as a few purple asters, on a tray which he set on an empty space on the bed. She sat up and brushed the sleep from her eyes. "You shoudn't spoil me like this... It's enough to go to any girl's head." She teased. Newt cracked a small smile, eyes never leaving his hands which were folded in his lap as he sat at her feet.

"Queenie and I used to bring my mom breakfast in bed like this on Mother's Day." Tina said wistfully as she bit into a slice of toast. "She'd make a big fuss about the crumbs, as though she weren't a witch who could just magic them away. She was always forgetting to use magic, it was the oddest thing." Tina could tell Newt didn't quite know how to respond to this, and felt a bit guilty. It was better now that they were adults, but people always felt awkward around her and Queenie when reminded of their orphaned state. After his speech last night, Tina knew that Newt's relationship with his own family was somewhat strained.

"Do you miss your parents?" Asked Newt, still not quite meeting her eyes. 

"Of course. Sometimes I do. And sometimes I think about all the stuff Queenie and I got into and I think how lucky it is we had to bring each other up. We're not exactly alike-- we probably wouldn't have even been friends if we didn't have to be." Tina mused. "I suppose I'm lucky, in a way, that my parents died before I was old enough to notice any of their flaws. It's like they're preserved in amber. I don't even remember them being sick, we got sent to an aunt before it got too bad."

She continued to nibble on her toast and sip her coffee. Newt fiddled with a loose thread on the quilt. 

"Do you miss your parents?" Tina asked, before she could stop herself.

Newt smiled ruefully. "Sometimes. Not always. They always encouraged me when I was young, with my animals and all, even when my pockets were full of doxy eggs and baby murtlaps and they lost sleep with all the squawking from my room." His face grew fond at the recollection. "And Theseus and I were always close as kids. They all knew I was different. My family, I mean. They always knew that I was going to have a hard time of things. Theseus always defended me when other kids teased." Newt paused, and when he started again his voice was a bit strained. "It changed when I went to Hogwarts, of course. Theseus was a bit embarrassed of me I think, and my interests... well, they became more of a liability. I received a couple of howlers about trying to sneak into the Forbidden Forest."

"The Forbidden Forest?"

"There's a forest surrounding Hogwarts. It's full of magical beings and creatures-- centaurs and unicorns, I've even heard rumors recently of acromantulas, though I never saw evidence of any when I was there. It's forbidden to students"

Tina's eyes were wide and amused. "Whose brilliant idea was that, putting a forest full of monsters next to a school? Best wizarding school my ass." 

Newt grinned at that and met her eyes. "They're not really monsters. They can be quite friendly, if you take the time to get to know them."

Tina laughed. "Will you show me a unicorn someday?" 

"I swear it." Newt promised with mock formality. "Speaking of monsters, we'd better leave soon. I sent an owl to Killbourne letting him know we'd be there around noon."

Tina sent the tray sailing off to the kitchen area with a flick of her wand. "Newt, about last night...." Her face grew very warm remembering how uncharacteristically confident he'd been as he determined exactly how to drive her to the edge, and then kept her there until she'd pleaded for release. "It was... Well, it was new to me. And the traveling and the creatures are new to me." She struggled, and Newt began to look nervous. "I guess what I'm saying is that being with you is like an adventure, and I'm enjoying myself immensely."

He squeezed her foot through the covers and smiled into his lap. "Come on, let's get packed up."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the short chapter, more to come this weekend.
> 
> P.s. I just did some head math and the acromantula rumors don't make sense for this time period yet in hindsight. *Sigh*.


	7. Chapter 7

As they apparated onto the outskirts of a dilapidated ranch, Tina stumbled a bit and Newt caught her before she could fall far. She wondered when he would give it a rest. Not that he should have let her fall on her ass, and not that she really minded, but she was an auror, after all. She knew her way around the world, had cared for herself and Queenie since she was barely a teen, and she certainly didn't need to be handled with kid gloves. Newt's careful consideration was thrilling and novel and entirely overwhelming.

A man in a grubby white union suit tucked into canvas dungarees emerged from one of the outbuildings and began limping towards them, followed by two crups-- one very old and one missing a hind leg. "You must be Scamander" he said with a thick growl before spitting a wad of chew on the ground. He extended a weathered hand and Newt pumped it up and down with an enthusiasm the man seemed to find amusing.

"Yes! Mr. Killbourne, I presume. An honor to make your acquaintance, sir."

"And who's this pretty thing?" Killbourne asked, turning to address Tina.

"Tina Goldstein." She answered, shaking his hand as firmly as she could. "Auror for the MACUSA". She had meant to impress, and perhaps even remind Newt of her qualifications, but knew that she'd made a mistake at the man's raised eyebrow.

"MACUSA, eh?" Killbourne rounded on Newt, his hand resting on the wand in the watch pocket of his trousers.

"I'm here on holiday" Tina quickly amended. "I'm traveling with Newt... I mean..." She stammered "I'm serving as Mister Scamander's field assistant." 

Newt blushed crimson, and seeing that Killbourne let out a hearty guffaw that devolved into a hacking cough. "Is that what folks are calling it in the city now? Field assistant?" He clapped them both firmly on the shoulders. "I don't have the back for such dalliances these days, but far be it from me to deny others such modern pleasures." He turned and led them towards a large cabin with a tin-roofed porch-- the most well-kept of the surrounding buildings. The crups, sensing Newt's otherworldly affinity with animals, were already jumping up around him and sniffing at his coat for treats. Newt shot Tina an apologetic glance and she grinned back at him. The situation was so ridiculous she couldn't even bring herself to be annoyed.

The three humans settled around a rough table in the dark cabin, Killbourne ladling them each a tin mug of bitter black coffee. "You came at a good time." He addressed Newt. "You've worked with dragons before, I take it."

"Ukrainian Ironbellies. During the war. Though I've had the opportunity to observe all of the European varieties at one time or another."

"These'll be different for you. There's a reason they've been almost exterminated... It's not just that they carry the pox, they're mean sons of bitches. Never known a dragon to be so hateful towards humans. I've got these'uns here to keep away rustlers, and they do a damn good job of it. They take a cow every now and again, though, and the no-majs think there's a bear in this valley. Anyway, they've got a clutch of eggs about to hatch tomorrow or the next day. Aren't too many people around here, they can raise up their young safe and sound. You said you wanted to see the nests."

Newt nodded, and after some further questions, Killbourne sketched a map onto a scrap of parchment and they set off into the foothills of the mountains surrounding the ranch.

Tina never expected to find herself tracking down dragons reputed to be particularly viscous towards humans. She would have been at least a little nervous under normal circumstances. But she had Newt Scamander by her side, a little bouncing spring in his step as he furiously covered ground, eager to reach the rocky outcropping into which the dragon's nest was set.

Newt and Tina reached their destination as dusk was beginning to fall. They approached it from the side, climbing onto the top of the cliffs so that they could lay on their bellies and look down upon the nest. Newt drew a circle of wards and set up the small tent, but only for Tina's benefit. He intended to wait up all night, looking down on the haphazard pile of branches that comprised the dragon's nest and watching for the tell-tale glowing that would occur before an egg hatched. Newt had never had a "field assistant" before-- with or without the innuendo that Killbourne had assumed. He wasn't quite sure what to do with Tina while he was engaged in his research.

Tina, it turned out, was just as interested in the process as he and she sat with him, quietly watching the nest, until she felt she couldn't keep her eyes open a second longer. Ruffling his hair and casting a warming spell over him, Tina went to bed, sleeping fitfully and feeling mildly as though she were trespassing by being in Newt's bed alone. 

Newt, for his part, found himself distracted by thoughts of Tina as he lay awake watching the nest. He was happiest, and most in his element, chasing down and observing magical creatures. His relationship with Tina was so new, he felt foolish for even entertaining such thoughts, but he wondered how he might go about building a life with another person when so much of his time was currently spent alone and in ever-changing, sometimes dangerous situations. So lost in thought was he that he hardly noticed dawn creeping over the horizon several hours later. He heard the tent flaps behind him and Tina emerged, bringing with her a thermos of tea for Newt. "Anything yet?" She whispered, and Newt shook his head no.

As light illuminated the nest below them, Tina was able to make out the shining copper scales of the two dragons against the red sandstone in which they'd made their home. She gasped as she was able to differentiate them from one another-- the female slightly larger, the male with more prominent horns,-- and realized how vast they were. Newt had told her that they were, perhaps, the smallest dragons at around 15 feet in length, but Tina found them quite fearsome nonetheless as they snapped their razor sharp teeth and their talons glinted in the sun.

Sometime mid morning, one of the two rose gold eggs in the nest began to glow and tremble slightly. "I'm going to go and get a closer look" said Newt, and Tina's eyes widened. "It'll be fine" he reassured her, "I just have to introduce myself". Tina swore under her breath as Newt scrambled down the steep embankment towards the nest. He really was an idiot.

Three hours later, Newt was exhausted, and Tina was manic with excitement and anxiety. She'd watched him defend himself expertly as the dragons realized their nest had been breached (mostly... he sustained a large burn across his shoulder), win them over through a complex bobbing dance and some noises that sounded like a pigeon purring, and stand with the two parents (still bobbing his entire torso up and down all the while) as two tiny golden nestlings emerged blearily, sneezing sparks, bobbing themselves and making the same little crooning noises that Newt was. The mother dragon blocked his path and licked his face when he tried to leave the nest area, and he'd apparated back to Tina's side.

Tina let out a sigh of relief, not realizing she'd been holding her breath. "How the hell did you do that? That was amazing, I've never seen anything like that." Energy coursed through her. She was awed and enthralled all over again by his competence with animals.

"Well, it's simple, really". Newt began, but he was swayed woozily on his feet. Tina caught him up under the arm and helped him into the case, hastily packing up the camp with magic and apparating--case in hand-- back to the riverbank where they'd camped two nights before.

When she'd reassembled the protective wards and followed Newt into the case, she found him slumped at the kitchen table, breathing raggedly. His shoulder was still untended to, and the mother vipertooth's affectionate lick had blistered the side of his face horribly. 

Tina worked quickly, stripping him out of his jacket and shirt, applying murtlap essence and dittany to his wounds, coaxing him to drink some water, and finally supporting him into bed where she tucked him in and plied him with a spoonful of dreamless sleep. He would certainly be fine, thought Tina. His scars were evidence of having survived much more frightening injuries. Her auror training had kept her cool in a crisis (although Newt would consider it a small one) and she hoped that Newt would see her as a little less fragile, less like a wounded or orphaned animal, when he woke up.... Whenever that would be, thought Tina, frowning as she laid a small kiss to his forehead. His color really didn't look good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this isn't getting too plot-heavy. I had intended to have small amounts of plot in between large amounts of smut, but the ratio is off :/


	8. Chapter 8

Tina fed the animals that evening as best she could as Newt slept. She knew what and how much to feed each beast, but she didn't have any of Newt's finesse with them. The graphorns and hippogriffs paced anxiously. Tina tried to cluck reassuring things at them-- "I know, I know... Dad'll be back soon... Calm down, there's a brave fellow" she felt nervous with how uneasy the animals all were in response to Newt's absence.

She returned to Newt's side as quickly as she could, and sat at the end of the bed staring at him for a while, chewing the skin around her thumbnail. He really was handsome. Devastatingly so, even, with his thick auburn hair (thrown into sharp contrast by the slightly greenish tinge his skin had taken on) and high cheekbones. Any other man blessed with Newt's winsome face would have become a ladykiller. Tina suspected that Newt wasn't aware of his looks even enough to care whether or not the angry blisters on the side of his face left a scar.

Tina sighed and fetched some salve from the small chest of first aid potions Newt kept in the kitchen. Inaction, when Newt was so clearly unwell, felt truly unbearable. She re-cleaned, treated, and bandaged the side of his face and-- not knowing what else to do with herself, undressed and crawled into bed next to him. 

Thoughts of the way he had so expertly brought her to orgasm with his mouth the last time they had shared this bed crept into Tina's mind unbidden. They hadn't even kissed in the time since. Leave it to Newt Scamander to determine that *that* was a good introduction to intimacy with a new partner. She smirked to herself and pulled the covers up over her mouth though of course on one could see her; she was without a doubt that it had been the most *educational* introduction. She wanted to do it again. She wanted to do everything with Newt. 

Tina awoke the next morning to a loud sneeze from Newt and the smell of singed hair. She leapt up and turned to see Newt sneeze again, sparks emerging from his nostrils. "Sparks when sneezing... Oh hell, you have dragon pox!" She gasped, swatting at her still smoking hair.

"Merlin's beard, this is a very inconvenient turn of events" said a sleepy Newt, his wan face-- which had initially looked rather pleased to see Tina awake-- falling a bit.

"What are we going to do? We're in the middle of no where! Why weren't you inoculated during the war?" Tina was beginning to pace, the adrenaline of a sudden wake-up mingling with the irrationality of sleep.

"We *are* wizards, Tina." Newt spoke gently. His voice was soft and hoarse-- the sparks moving through his throat as he'd sneezed had burned.

Tina stopped pacing and looked at him fully. "How do you feel?"

"Truthfully, I have felt better." Newt was smiling again, his face lopsided as he favored the unblistered side. Tina rolled her eyes. "Do you think you could make some tea, please?"

Tina spent the morning fussing anxiously over Newt. She brought him tea, changed his bandages, fluffed his pillows. At one point he tried to stand, insisting that his animals would need breakfast. He swayed on his feet and Tina pushed him back down. "I'll feed them, you rest."

Newt lay in bed, feeling rather sorry for himself as he listened to Tina make the morning rounds. "You'll have to take breakfast from me and it's no good fussing...Newt's sick." "Oh, hush now, he'll be up and about soon enough." He could tell she was saying these things to herself more than to his creatures, but he found it tremendously endearing nonetheless. Tina had taken to life in the case like a duck to water. She didn't share his easy obsession with magical creatures, but she was competent and clever, and she appreciated each of his beasts in turn. He felt a queasy fluttering in his stomach that he knew to be longing for her rather than further symptoms of his illness. When she came in sometime later with Dougal the demiguise clutching the hem of her large cardigan, he felt a thrill that he thought must surely be love. Dougal climbed onto the bed and groomed Newt's hair affectionately.

"Alright. So. We can stay here a day or two while I get travel sorted out, but you'll need to go to a real healer for treatment. The floo network isn't set up for travel out here, but I can use it to contact Queenie and have her sort out a portkey back to New York." Tina began.

Newt began to protest. A portkey was the quickest way to travel across such a distance, but the magic involved would shake up the contents of his case horribly.

"We'll just have to secure the creatures as best as we can." Tina stopped his protestations. "You're young and you'll probably be fine, of course, but you know dragon pox can have dangerous complications. Especially with your dragon fire burns. I can't just brew you some pepper-up potion and have you sleep it off." 

Newt nodded his acceptance of the situation and Tina crawled up the bed so he could wrap his uninjured arm around her shoulders. "Isn't there a risk of me infecting you?" He asked.

"Queenie and I both got it when my parents did. We survived because we were young. I'm immune now."

Newt winced a bit as he moved his burned arm to chuck her under the chin and bring her mouth up for a kiss. He kissed her sweetly and insistently. Due to the dragon pox, his morning breath smelled a bit like gunpowder. Tina tasted sweet and floral by comparison. Newt felt intensely grateful for her careful ministrations, and while he felt far too ill to act on it desire coursed through him.

Newt's desire for Tina only grew as she left him to his own devices-- apparating away from their camp to find a wizarding dwelling from which to contact Queenie and to find food suitable for an invalid. He tried to distract himself by writing notes on the Vipertooths, sketching out the babies with their over-sized scales and the nest with its lining of juniper mistletoe. But his thoughts kept returning to her graceful movements, her kind eyes, the way she had gasped his name as he'd pushed his fingers into the warm velvet of her body.

When Tina returned some hours later, Newt was without a creature companion. He met her with a lustful gaze that caused her to stop in her tracks.

She filled him in on the plan. Tina would spend the next morning securing the animals as best as she could under Newt's direction and Queenie would arrange for a portkey that would take them to the MACUSA building the next evening. From there, they would set up Newt in their small apartment to recover. The magical healers and apothecaries in New York wold be able to ensure that Newt enjoyed a full recovery. 

The heat in Newt's gaze caused Tina to trail off. "...and that's good of course... Sorry, can I get you anything?"

"I wonder if you might permit me the great honor of allowing me to see you without your clothes on." He met her eyes steadily.

Tina went scarlet. "I think the fever has gone to your head. You're not well enough for such things, and we've got to clean you up and change your bandages." She tried to look reproachful, but Newt could tell his desire for her was reciprocated-- her delicate fingers were already undoing the pearl buttons at the neck of her blouse.

"I assure you, I'm well enough to know what I want." His tone was low gravel. "I won't over-exert myself, I promise. I'll get right into the bath and let you clean anything you want when we're through. Just... humor me. Please."

She continued to slowly undress and Newt's eyes never left hers as inch by delicious inch of her pale skin was revealed. He permitted himself to take in her body in its entirety. Everything from the high arch of her foot to the pink shell of her ear, behind which she nervously tucked her hair, was irresistible to Newt. He let out a small groan of appreciation.

Tina felt nervous and excited as she stood before him in the bold artificial daylight of the case. Newt was clearly unafraid of asking for what he wanted, and it was wildly arousing to her. As he studied her form, she recognized on his face the look he'd had when observing the Vipertooths from above-- a studied concentration, as though he were trying to memorize every curve in order to accurately illustrate it later. The intensity of the moment was made more warm and humorous when his moan turned into a succession of sneezes, shooting golden sparks everywhere. "Blast!" He exclaimed, and Tina laughed.

"Come sit at the end of the bed" he instructed, and Tina did so, folding her knees together off to the side. "You really are breathtaking. The other night, when I watched you come undone... it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. I would like to see it again." Tina blushed.

Newt tossed her a pillow. "Open your legs. Please." His tone was commanding and calm, but Tina heard the plaintiveness beneath it, saw the eager desperation on his bandaged face. He needed to see her. It made her feel powerful. She arranged the pillow between her back and the ornate brass of the footboard and brought her knees up, spreading herself in front of his eyes. He looked at her heavy-lidded with awe, as though she were a goddess. It made Tina course with confidence and want.

"May I touch myself?" She asked, emboldened by his reverence.

"Oh, Gods, please." Came Newt's strangled response, a patchy flush covering his neck and chest that had nothing to do with his illness.

She brought her fingers to her slick folds and proceeded to pleasure herself-- slowly, mimicking the movements of his mouth the other night, aware that she was putting on a show. Newt swallowed visibly, his breath becoming ragged, his eyelids fluttering in response to her sighs and moans. Small benedictions and broken praises fell from his fevered lips as he watched her, fingers clutching the covers beneath his hands. "So beautiful. So so beautiful. Oh, Tina..." Hearing her name from his lips pushed her over the edge and she came, softly, reality coming back to her-- sunlight, the cool cotton pillowcase on her back, and Newt's sweet grateful face, still whispering kindnesses.

Plain, practical, pragmatic Tina could not have dreamed up this scenario, nor imagined the comfort with which she had willingly displayed such indecencies, in a thousand years. But just as he had made tracking down man-eating dragons seem as tame and and accessible as any jaunt through the park, so Newt Scamander had the ability to make all manner of sexual... explorations feel natural and secure.

"Alright, time for your bath." Tina moved, still very much nude, to lift him under the arm and help him towards the claw foot tub behind the potting shed.

"I'm afraid I find myself in a bit of a state" said Newt, gesturing vaguely downwards. "Perhaps it would be best if I were to bathe alone."

"Not on your life." Said Tina, arm wrapped around his slim pajama-clad hips.


	9. Chapter 9

Newt leaned against the shed, cradling his arm, as Tina drew him a bath-- lukewarm so as not to exacerbate his burns. With a flick of her wand, she added the same foaming white bubbles he had provided for her mere days before.

"Tina... I'm so grateful to you for coming on this trip with me." Said Newt, watching her as she transfigured a stone into a large sponge and an old tarp into a fluffy yellow towel. She was still almost nude, but had thrown on her large cardigan and her boots, which she'd left unlaced. It was an odd combination, and Newt found it utterly enchanting. "You've taken such good care of my creatures, and of me. I had intended to bring you with me so that *you* might feel better, after all of that... well, after everything that happened with Credence. And here you are playing nursemaid for us all." He gestured expansively around his case.

Tina smiled at him. "I don't mind, really. I like to feel useful. And it's been wonderful getting to know your creatures. And you."

"I wonder if you might want to accompany back to London for a time. The recovery period associated with dragon pox is long, and I intend to spend as much of it as possible near my library so that I can work on my book. And... well, I wouldn't bring you to be my nurse. I'd bring you to show you my home and to..." He struggled for words. "Just to be around you. I know you've got three and and a half months off of work still. Please consider it."

Tina reached out to him, offering to steady him as he stripped out of his pajama pants. He held onto her shoulder and grunted in pain as bent down, trying to shimmy out of them. He was having a hard time, and Tina bent to help him, turning her head so to preserve his dignity. He sneezed and she smelled her hair singe again.

"I'll be bald by the time we get to London if you keep that up" she grinned, as he climbed gratefully into the bath, still steadying himself on her shoulder.

"You mean you'll come with me then?" He said, clearly very pleased.

"Of course I'll come with you you great loon."

Tina knelt by the edge of the tub and dipped the sponge in. She rung it out and began to wash Newt's back, which was as green-hued as the rest of him and starting to break out in spots. 

Newt groaned. As miserable as he felt, it was immensely pleasurable to feel the warm water, the gentle sponge, Tina's soft hands, washing away several days of grime and sweat. This was not how he would have chosen for her to see him-- weak, green, and sneezing sparks-- but he didn't feel ashamed of his vulnerability or worried what she would think. Tina had proven herself time and time again to be not only giving, but forgiving. Newt was desperately conscious of not wanting to take advantage of these qualities, but it felt like heaven to allow himself to be mollycoddled a bit. 

He sighed with contentment closed his eyes, and leaned back as she moved to his chest, carefully avoiding his burned shoulder and bicep-- she'd use a sterilization charm before rebandaging it.

Tina moved her hand lower, beneath the bubbles, across his firm stomach. Newt said nothing as the sponge moved across his hips, down his thighs, Tina clearly bashful but still exploratory. 

In spite of his illness and his injuries, the sweet innocence of Tina's ministrations, a dark part of himself came unbidden to the surface. He wanted her to push him, to grasp his still semi-tumescent cock and bring him off in the bathtub like some Knockturn Alley trollop. It was a fevered and shameful thought, and as she moved her hand back up his stomach he clasped her wrist.

Tina was startled out of her reverie and looked at Newt. He kissed her. "Thank you, Tina. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this." She took the hint and stood, placing a kiss on the top of his head. 

"I'll go make us some soup. Give a shout if you need help."

Newt knew that he had confused her, perhaps even hurt her feelings. What was one to do when the object of their desire caused them to devolve so completely into a beast in rut? Tina was perfection. Each sigh of pleasure, each passionate moan, each delicate detail of her sex was infinitely, improbably beautiful. He could not deny himself the loveliness that was Tina experiencing ecstasy. Newt held no puritanical illusions about the morality of sex. Yet he still somehow feared she would be... horrified, debased somehow if she knew the full extent of his lust for her. 

No matter what she said to the contrary, he wouldn't expose her to that. He would learn more self control before he indulged himself in her. Newt brought himself off in the tub, wincing as he jostled his arm, remembering the way Tina had looked earlier, glorious and splayed on his bed, offering herself to him.

He stood unsteadily and wrapped the towel around his waist, plodding slow back to his bed to await his soup and his Tina.


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning, Tina worked diligently to secure the animals for travel by portkey. Transport by portkey was a simple enough magic when it came to maintaining the internal integrity of simple things, like human organs. But Newt's suitcase was such a fantastic patchwork of improbable extension charms, grown organically as his menagerie had expanded and comprised of many organisms, that there was a very real risk the contents and perhaps the structure would come out the other side quite discombobulated.

In some instances it was easy-- braced and padded cages could be magicked into being for animals like the hippogriffs and the mooncalves, structures and charms could be reinforced. Animals like the diricawls-- with their ability to pop out of existence and reappear sometime later presented more of a challenge. Dougal, sensing upheaval, was no where to be found. The plants, earth, water, and rock features that made up the various biomes would all require attention in the form of nets or spelling to make sure they weren't too shaken up. It was an involved task, made more difficult by the fact that Tina couldn't quite keep her mind on it.

Newt's illness had progressed. He was experiencing horrible fever and chills, and was now quite a brilliant shade of chartreuse speckled with spots that would soon become angry boils. Tina had moved his bed (Newt still in it) out into the open so that he could advise her as she went about securing the case. Various beasts came to pay their respects to their ailing caretaker, and in addition to helping Tina better comprehend the complexities of the case, Newt expended a great deal of energy in reassuring them as best he could from his bed. Most of the time, he slept.

Tina found her mind wandering as she worked, wondering at Newt's eagerness to be physically intimate with her, but reluctance to allow their pleasure to be mutual. Not that she'd have much opportunity to explore the matter any time soon with him so ill. She remembered, for a moment, an instance early in her career when she'd investigated a quack healer who'd been casting engorgement charms on various parts of the male anatomy with horrible results. Perhaps it was something like that? She chuckled to herself, knowing that the explanation would be more complex and (thankfully) less puss-filled. 

At last, everything was as battened down as it was going to be and they were ready to go. Tina apparated to the grove of scrub oak outside the wizarding dwelling from which she'd contacted Queenie, and Newt climbed out of the case with great difficulty. Together, they held hands-- the handle of the suitcase clasped between them on one side and the rusted railroad spike that would carry them back to New York on the other.

"Hold on tight!" Said Tina as the spike began to glow. Newt already looked as though he were about to vomit.

Several whirling, stomach-heaving, nightmarish seconds later they collapsed on the marble tile floor of the MACUSA building. Newt tried immediately to crawl back into his case to check on his creatures, but was waylaid by several MACUSA staff healers and... 

"Teenie!" Squealed Tina's sister Queenie, rushing into the darker woman's arms. "I can't believe you're back already, I was sure you'd decide to never come back.... Gosh, Newt really does look awful." 

The healers had checked over Newt with brusque efficiency, and had already tipped several vials of foul smelling potions down his throat. Dragon pox was not uncommon, and at this point not untreatable. But in New York, small epidemics could devastate the tiny wizarding enclaves strewn about the city.

"Miss Goldstein, if you'd be so kind as to step over here." A handsome young healer presented her with a leather case of prepared potions and salves and instructed her on their applications. "Queenie... I mean, ahem, the other Miss Goldstein"-- he blushed and Queenie winked at him-- "informs me that you both have been inoculated by early exposure. Keep him indoors until the spots scab. He's not contagious to no-majs, their physiologies are slightly different, but we don't want to risk exposure to anyone in the magical community."

Tina nodded. Leave it to Queenie to procure first-rate medical care through work-place flirtation.

The three of them apparated back to Queenie and Tina's appartment after some form-filling and a stern but procedural lecture from one of her colleagues in the Auror's office regarding Newt's case and the consequences should anything happen. Tina got the distinct impression strings had been pulled by their respective governments at some higher level, but how and by whom she was not sure-- it certainly wasn't Queenie's doing. 

Again, upon arrival, Newt moved immediately to check on his case. He was becoming quite frantic, wondering how his creatures had survived the flight. A certain jovial, portly, and very familiar muggle sitting on the worn davenport of the small flat distracted him. 

"Jacob! Oh, Merlin, one minute!" Newt cried weakly before toppling into his case. 

Tina cast a cushioning charm to soften his fall just in time before rounding on Queenie. "You want to explain why there's a no-maj who's not supposed to remember we exist in our living room?"

"Oh, Tina. You know that the laws about wizard/no-maj relationships are old-fashioned. I'm not sayin' every no-maj's gotta know about us, but Jacob's gotta right after all he did, and if we lived in England like Mr. Scamander you know it wouldn't turn any heads. Besides, I'm helping him get his bakery set up."

Tina sighed. Queenie could be flippant and fool-hardy, but her moral compass was never off even if her respect for the letter of the law was negligible. She'd turn a blind eye while she was in London at least, but when she returned they'd have to come up with some sort of plan so that discovery of Queenie and Jacob's relationship wouldn't have professional consequences for Tina's MACUSA job. Tina dreaded having to tell Queenie about her plans to leave again so soon.

Newt crawled weakly back into the small parlor. "They're all fine. Everything's fine. Everyone's very confused and upset with me, though... Jacob. It's very good to see you." He collapsed, practically onto Jacob's rotund lap.

They helped Newt into one of the small twin beds where he fell asleep quite quickly, mumbling something about travel-fatigued plimpies.


	11. Chapter 11

Tina, Queenie, and Jacob settled themselves around the small table. Hot chocolate with a pour of heavy cream assembled itself into brown enamel mugs as Queenie flicked her wand. A tray of frosted buns studded with raisins was already waiting for them on the table.

"You've gotta try Jacobs pastries, Teenie, they're just the tops" gushed Queenie. Remembering her promise to herself not to get into it until she had returned to London-- and certainly not before she had told Queenie that she'd be leaving again so soon-- Tina took one of the simple confections. It was soft and chewy, golden with egg yolk and rich with cinnamon. It really was marvelous. She told Jacob so unreservedly and he beamed, his thick hand coming to rest on top of Queenie's.

Tina blushed. While Queenie had always had some suitor or another hanging around, and Tina had had a couple of school flames that had turned into flirtatious but doomed-from-the-start correspondences in recent years, the two sisters had never learned how to be in relationships around one another. How would Tina explain to Queenie the nature of her courtship with Newt? That she was planning on leaving the country with a man she'd only known for a couple of weeks. That she thought perhaps she could love him despite his hesitance to take their sexual relationship beyond administering pleasure to her the way he might administer a poultice to an injured animal to see how it faired (admittedly skilled though he was). She was daydreaming now, and that was dangerous around Queenie.

"Tina, Gods, I can see why you're going to London with him!" Queenie gasped and fanned herself theatrically. Tina's face grew hot, but years of living with a legilimens for a sister had allowed her to perfect a ferocious eye roll where anyone else might grow unbearably flustered.

"Cut it out, Queenie, for Pete's sake" she said, exasperated and still flushed.

Jacob looked amused. He was still charmed and awed by the fact that his new sweetheart was a mind reader, but he had clearly gotten to know Queenie well enough that he could start using context clues to guess at what she was seeing in other peoples thoughts. "London, huh?" He inserted, gallantly trying to change the subject and save Tina from her embarrassment. "It's a pity, I'd hoped to have Newt stick around a while longer, maybe spend a few days in the shop when it opens. Though after seeing him, that probably wouldn't be good for business. How long'll he be like that? You sure it's not contagious to me? Bein' a no-maj and all?"

Tina smiled. Jacob's consideration for her embarrassment and his use of the wizard slang 'no-maj' were charming. She felt a happy glow at the thought of Queenie settling down with this generous and kind man, whose plans for wooing her had considerably more domestic outcomes than those of her past suitors. Queenie smiled into her lap. "I know, I love it too, Tina" she said, and while Tina usually got annoyed when her sister's statements came in response to the thoughts rather than the conversation around her, she only felt her warm fondness for Jacob intensify.

"No, Mr. Kowalski, you'll be quite alright. And Queenie and I will be fine. And Newt will no longer be contagious after a couple of days. But the recovery period is long-- months, sometimes. He'll be tired and weak even after his skin goes back to normal, and he got badly burned by a dragon, so his body will have an even harder time fighting it off."

"A dragon!" Jacob and Queenie exclaimed in unison, though in very different tones of voice-- Jacob amazed and delighted, Queenie terrified.

They spend the remainder of the evening with Tina filling them in on the details of their trip. From releasing Frank to observing the Vipertooths, she hoped that her voice would not betray how smitten she was with Newt's ability to ingratiate himself with animals. It was a strange quality for a man to have, and one that Queenie would likely find frightening as chasing after the opportunity to witness it might endanger Tina. But Tina found the thought of Newt's ability to care for animals-- from subduing the most fearsome in order to learn about them to charming the most fragile, skiddish, or orphaned in order to heal or raise them-- almost unbearably attractive.

Tina went to bed that night in the twin bed across from Newt's, and lay awake a long while, watching his shoulders rise and fall, his breath somewhat labored. She hoped she wasn't being foolish, wanting to continue traveling with him for as long as possible.

Newt awoke the next morning feeling worse than he had after Grindlewald-as-Graves had relentlessly cast cruciatus on him in the subways. Every muscle ached, his head felt wooly and his tongue felt coated. His nose and throat were on fire, and as he tried to stand he found himself so dizzy he immediately collapsed on the floor.

Tina was on her feet immediately, wand drawn, upon hearing the crash. Newt looked up at her from his pitiable state on the floor and tried to smile. In his miserable, disoriented, and diminished state Tina was familiar and lovely and capable. With no small amount of effort, he stretched his arm across the braided rag rug and rubbed her ankle affectionately with his thumb. He was so sweet despite being so pitiful, Tina had to put the back of her hand across her mouth to stop herself chuckling at him.

"Mr. Scamander, I think you'll find that you still have dragon pox and will be much better off back in bed." She said sternly, though she wore a gentle smile. She crouched down to card her fingers through his sweat-damp auburn hair. Her hand was cool and dry, and he closed his eyes and pushed into it like a faithful old dog.

"Creatures. And then I need the toilet." Newt croaked. It would take more than dragon pox to shift his priorities.

Tina appeared to think for a moment, and then magicked in the armchair from the living room, using a sticking charm to fasten the seat of Newt's pajama trousers to its cane backing. They descended into the case, Newt lolling a bit on his floating chair, to attend to the creatures. It was fairly undignified, but he felt grateful to her for her help. He suspected he would not get a great deal of dignity in the next month or two. He hoped she could forgive him for being a useless lump while he recovered.

Newt's original assessment had been correct-- the creatures were not pleased after being jerked about by the portkey. It probably didn't help that they'd missed their supper the night before, he thought guiltily.

As anxious and annoyed and hungry as the animals were, they wound around his bare feet and licked his fevered face as Tina released them from the spells and structures that had kept them safe during their journey. Tina, sweet patient soul that she was, took on the duties of making sure they were all properly fed and watered. She was quite proficient now, and even seemed to enjoy the work. 

Newt admired her lack of fear as she bowed low before approaching the hippogriffs. Though he knew the phrasing would seem vulgar and coarse if he spoke it aloud, Newt had wanted to add Tina to his collection of creatures, to study her and learn about her and in that way to be able to claim her as his own, since he'd met her. But Tina had integrated herself seamlessly into his collection before thorough study had even been an option. He hoped she would make good on her offer to accompany him back to London.

Once back outside the case, Tina continued to play the careful nurse. She helped steady him as he stood and relieved himself in the apartment's small bathroom. She cleaned and re-wrapped his wounds. She fed him his potions and administered salves to the painful spots on his back and chest. She made him tea and coaxed him to eat a bit of Jacob's fragrant sourdough soaked in rich beef broth. They continued in this fashion for several days, Queenie and Jacob popping in in the evenings, arms laden with treats from the bakery which would be opening to the public in less than a week, but Newt never quite lucid enough to be a decent conversationalist.

Tina would read to herself when she wasn't attending to Newt, and sometimes aloud read to him when he was awake. She would mend and repack her small wardrobe in preparation for England. She would play gin rummy with Queenie. She would clean the small apartment, or run out to help her landlady Mrs. Esposito with her shopping. Newt, hazy and sick though he was, found himself wondering at how serious Tina was in this setting. She was always practical, but while they had traveled there had been a sliver of humor underlying their every interaction. As sweet and careful as she was being with him, he missed seeing her wit and her appreciation of absurdity. He didn't know quite how to ask about this shift, and even if he had he wasn't well enough to do so.

On the fourth day, just as Newt was starting to feel well enough to join the others to play Whist and there was talk of how they might get him down to see the bakery, an owl arrived at the window. Newt recognized the neat script of his brother Theseus almost immediately

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for being slow to update, it's been a hell of a week at work. As always, I appreciate your feedback.


	12. Chapter 12

//Newton,

Word has reached me that you have fallen ill while traveling. I'm sorry to hear it. Please report back to the Ministry as soon as possible, it's been a diplomatic nightmare convincing the MACUSA to allow you to stay in New York with your monsters. It's nearly as bad as pacifying Mother, who is quite frantic with the news. Do plan on at least visiting for Christmas, it would please her to no end.

I will arrange an international floo from the MACUSA building to your London address tomorrow evening, my contact informs me you may be bringing an auror companion, and I can't say I'm opposed to the idea, the Grindlewald situation being what it is. Enclosed is her British traveler's permit for wand carry. 

Theseus

P.S.-- Your publisher is sending regular owls to our parents home and presumably your flat. There's apparently a very high demand for magizoological texts all of a sudden. Can't imagine why, probably some sort of highly-publicized international magical crisis involving an obscurus, a dark wizard, and a slew of monsters set loose on a city full of unsuspecting muggles. Cheers!//

Newt read the letter through blearily a few times before handing it off to Tina. Perhaps it was his pox-addled brain, but Theseus' tone was rather more cordial-- collegial even-- than it had been in over a decade. Perhaps he thought Newt was dying. Newt didn't trust it.

Tina read through the letter herself before handing it over to Queenie. "We'll have to miss the opening of your bakery, Jacob, I'm so sorry." She said apologetically, looking over the wand-carry permit Theseus had included. "Hang on, this says 'Porpentina Scamander' on it" She rounded on Newt. "You didn't tell your brother we got married or something, did you?"

"No, of course not." Said Newt flatly. "I expect he's teasing me." 

Tina's arched eyebrow softened at how utterly defeated Newt looked. He was lucid for the first time in days, and she could tell that he was bored of being sick and resentful that his older brother was telling him what to do regardless of how friendly Theseus seemed in the letter.

That night, Tina squeezed herself next to Newt in the tiny twin bed. His arms wrapped loosely around her and she kissed the top of his head.

"Do you still want to come with me?" Between his convalescence and his brother's jab about the strings he'd had to pull to keep Newt in New York, Newt was grossly aware of being a horrible burden.

"Don't be stupid, of course I do. Do you still want me to?" Tina could sense that Theseus' letter had made Newt uncomfortably self-aware in a way that he hadn't been since they'd first met weeks ago. While they had traveled together, Newt had been confident, even a little cocky, and while he certainly wasn't enjoying being an invalid he seemed resigned and grateful to be her patient. Now, once again, she could see the heavy weight of fearing he was annoying or boring or burdensome settle on his shoulders. She hated it. Before Newt had the opportunity to answer her initial query, she continued: "Newt Scamander, I would come with you even if you weren't sick. Even if we didn't..."--she blushed, struggling for words to describe the nature of their relationship-- "want to kiss and everything". 

Newt didn't look at her, but she could feel him smiling against her chest, so she continued. "I'd probably come with you even if you didn't want me to, just to make sure the animals got looked after. They trust me now, you know. And your creatures and I talk about you behind your back when you're not around. I'm one of them now, and you can't be rid of me so easily."

In that statement Tina had made visible a small amount of the silliness he knew to be bubbling just under the practical, workaday facade she'd been wearing since they'd returned to New York. It was unbearably beautiful to Newt, who was exhausted from being sick and feeling guilty and worrying about what would happen when he returned to England, and who wanted nothing more than to abscond with Tina into his suitcase and live there undisturbed for a very long time. Newt felt the hot prickle of tears behind his eyelids, and buried his face in her bosom. He slid his hand into the elastic waistband of her pajama pants and smoothed is thumb across the warm hollow of her hip bone.

Tina stroked his hair and made a small, crooning, comforting noise.   
"What's wrong?" She asked.

"When I return to England, I'll very probably have to be a dutiful son, and then a famous author for a bit. I'm not well suited for either, I think. I'm tired just thinking about it" Newt allowed his gaze to slide up to the outline of her face in the darkness. He couldn't tell what she was thinking. "I would rather lie in bed with you, or take you to see unicorns or something." He frowned. It was difficult to express just what the source of his trepidation was.

"You've got a while before you have to worry about any of that." Tina shifted so that she was facing him, their noses mere inches apart, Newt's hand coming to rest on the smooth swell of her buttocks. Through the dark, Tina could almost make out his freckles. "You'll need to finish your book first. And to recover from the pox." She bit her lip, trying to think of how to tell him how desperately she wanted to spend a very significant portion of her time in England with him naked in bed. 

Newt read the desire on her features and brought his hand to her cheek, brushing her lip from her teeth with his thumb. "Tina Goldstein, I rather think there may be some risk of you falling ill after all. It is slight, of course, but we should keep you in for some time... for observation." Tina blushed at his innuendo. Who would have thought earnest, plain-spoken Newt Scamander had it in him?

He kissed her gently and they drifted off to sleep, all worry about the trip to England and subsequent obligations forgotten in the comfort of one another's arms.


	13. Chapter 13

The MACUSA building had several rooms-- like the one into which they'd portkeyed just days prior-- intended strictly for employees and dignitaries to use for traveling. It was in one of these that Tina and Newt now stood, prepared to step into a large marble hearth and step out the other side into Newt's London flat.

They had said goodbye to Queenie and Jacob that morning, and Queenie had cried in earnest this time, wiping her streaming face on the lapel of Tina's navy winter coat. Tina knew she'd be back before too long, but she would miss her sister. After years of caring for one another, it seemed (though neither would speak it) as though they were entering a new phase together.

Newt had stood awkwardly on the outskirts of this parting display, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, clasping the handle of his case in both hands. He had on his shirt and coat, but was wearing pajama pants and a pair of fuzzy pink slippers that Queenie had found under one of their beds and enlarged to fit him. The fondness the sisters had for one another despite their dissimilarities was curious and foreign to Newt, and watching it was almost painful when he knew he was returning to something quite different with his own brother-- a sort of ritualistic rivalry borne of repeated betrayals and disappointments.

The dread came upon him again in the traveling chambers, as the MACUSA attendant gestured them towards the correct hearth. "My fireplace isn't so big. We should go separately." Said Newt, pushing Tina ahead of him. She nodded apprehensively, but seemed to accept that she would be going first. Floo was much less common for travel in the Americas, and international connections were rare indeed. Newt suspected that Tina's hesitance was with the process rather than the destination, and he gave her arm what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze.

Tina accepted a handful of floo powder from the attendant and threw it on the fire. When the flames licked green, she stepped in and spoke Newt's address clearly. Her face looked pale and frightened, but she gave him a quick wink before disappearing from view. When she fell out of a fireplace and towards a worn Tabriz rug some moments later, strong hands caught her before she could hit the ground.

Newt was waylaid by an attempt by his niffler to steal the brass buttons off the MACUSA attendants smart double breasted suit. It took him a good five minutes to follow Tina into the grate, stepping out of his hearth when he did with a little more grace.

"Merlin's beard, what the hell do you think you're doing, Theseus?" He croaked when he'd gotten his bearings. His brother was standing over Tina and muttering a varitety of glamour-dissolving and deceit-detecting charms. Tina had been tied to Newt's favorite rocking chair and was thrashing against her bonds so violently it looked likely to turn over. 

Newt crossed the room swiftly and staid the chair before waiving his wand and dissolving the ropes that held Tina. She rubbed her wrists ruefully and retrieved her own wand from the rug several paces away, glaring at the man that could only be Newt's brother. 

The man was several inches shorter than Newt and quite stocky. His hair was dark and course, Newt's red hair only reflected in his well-kept beard. He wore a dark suit, sleek and somber-looking, and entirely incongruous on his barrel-chested frame. He was handsome, in a blunt and brutish sort of way, and while there was a family resemblance he and Newt were quite dissimilar in both frame and carriage.

Theseus closed the gap between him self and and his brother quickly. He clapped a hand to Newt's shoulder and Newt shrugged him off as though stung. "Can't be too careful, little brother. No hard feelings. Merlin knows you've got a history of turning a blind eye to the dark arts when it comes to pretty witches." His tone was playful, but Newt winced as though Theseus had struck him.

Tina, meanwhile, was returning the wizards careful examinations from behind his back. He ignored her, and her spells didn't turn up anything out of the usual-- whatever he was, he wasn't hiding anything. Seeing Newt cringing at the man's words, she went to stand next to him and his knuckles brushed the back of her hand imperceptibly.

"I know this isn't the most artful reunion. My apologies, Miss Goldstein." Theseus inclined his head slightly in Tina's direction. "I know you are ill, and I intend to leave you to mend in short order. But there are a few things you need to be filled in on."

Newt, who had begun to sag, sat down in the rocking chair and Tina moved behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders protectively. Newt was surprised to see Theseus smile genuinely at this gesture.

"As you're no doubt aware, Grindlewald is still on the loose. There are some rumors that he may be planning to go after you for revenge after you thwarted his plans of weaponizing that poor boy in New York." Tina gasped, but Newt's face remained impassive. "I feel, based on the intelligence that has been shared with me, that for now you are safe while you are in England. I hope you will stay here until it is safe for you to leave, and *not*..."--his gaze turned sharp--"based on some wild hare opportunity to go tearing after some beast or another."

Theseus continued: "I am thrilled that you have allied yourself with the charming Miss Goldstein. Her contributions to the events in New York precede her, and she seems just the level-headed sort to keep you out of trouble." He bowed again, a bit, to Tina. "It is fortunate, also, considering that your propensity for trouble seems to involve dark magic more often than not that she has been trained as an auror. Though it would appear MACUSA neglects to train its people on the finer points of avoiding being tied up." His eyes twinkled and Tina growled something about floo being for primitives under her breath. "In light of heightened security measures, we've had to make some... *ahem* allowances to get her here, and these are what I'd like to discuss with you." 

Tina's eyes went wide. If this self-important brute interfered with the career she'd worked so hard to achieve (and then reachieve, she thought with a squirm of discomfort), she'd hex him into next week; Newt's familial harmony be damned. 

"See, the Ministry isn't too keen on letting foreign wizards into the country at the moment-- especially members of the MACUSA. The Graves incident left them with a terrible taste in their mouth. In order to procure permission for Miss Goldstein to accompany you, I've had to arrange a marriage of sorts-- not that being married to you would stop Miss Goldstein from being a dark wizard, of course, but there are stranger policies on the books. A contact at the Department of International Magical Cooperation fixed it all up."

Tina's chin was on her chest, and Newt swallowed audibly, his warm hand reaching up to clasp hers, which had gone quite clammy. Theseus laughed at their stunned faces. "You're not actually married. Merlin, I swear, being in the states must have made your brain go off-- I know their schools aren't quite up to snuff." Tina's clamped her jaw shut and frowned at that.

"So what does this mean, then?" Asked Newt, a note of petulance in his voice.

"It means that while you have not participated in a magical bonding ceremony that's recognized by either the MACUSA or the Ministry, the Ministry believes that you have a marriage certificate on file with the MACUSA. If this were indeed true, your marriage would be enough to help Tina emigrate with you, but would still not *quite* be recognized in Britain."

Tina spoke, her voice sharp and her gaze steely. "What are the consequences if we're found out?"

"Oh, dire I'd imagine. Or perhaps not. There's not really precedent for this sort of thing, and it would depend on how long it takes to sort out this Grindlewald business. I would suggest you maintain the pretense no matter what, and around everyone but me. That includes, Newt, our dear mother and father." He waggled his eyebrows, clearly enjoying himself.

"Sorry, why on earth would you go to all this trouble?" Tina was unnerved, not only by the arrangement but by the fact that Theseus-- a man she'd never met and with whom she knew Newt had a strained relationship-- would think the arrangement necessary in the first place.

"My brother would be dead without you, Miss Goldstein. I owe you a debt, and so does he." He turned to Newt: "Rest up, little brother-- you look awful. I'll send an owl in a few days. Goodnight, Newt... Mrs. Scamander."

He disapparated with a pop, leaving Newt and Tina stunned. Tina moved around the chair, and made to sink to her knees in front of Newt. With a physical strength that hadn't been accessible to him for the last week, however, Newt pulled her onto his lap. He rocked her like a child, making little humming noises into her hair.

Newt was both mortified and thrilled by his brother's actions, and frightened by what they might mean for him and for Tina. He had never been very good at playing pretend-- who needed whimsy when the real world had so many fantastical things to offer? But being married to Porpentina Goldstein was a fantasy so wild and desirable he never would have allowed himself to entertain it without prompting. She was the most magical creature he had ever known. He would have to tread exceedingly carefully, both for the sake of the ruse and of their relationship. It would take some thought, and some planning, and right now he was too tired and concerned over Tina's well-being to do any of that.

Tina had been so strong while taking care of him (and Queenie) this past week. She had been so ready to pick up and leave with him despite the uncertainty and Queenie's tears. She had been brave and tolerant when faced with his brother; Theseus had tied her up and treated her like a common criminal before acting as though it was all water under the bridge and they were old friends who could conspire to keep Newt in check. Typical Gryffindor. Newt rolled his eyes.

He heard Tina snuffling a bit. She must be as exhausted and filled with bleak uncertainty as he. He chucked her under the chin and raised her tearful face to his. "C'mon, wife," said he "let's put you to bed."

He was rewarded with a small blubbery laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figure I may as well go all-in on the stereotypical fan fiction tropes. Best to get them out of my system. Let me know what you think, I adore reading your feedback!


	14. Chapter 14

With great effort due to his illness, Newt lifted Tina from his lap and placed her gently on an overstuffed chaise longue. It was covered in shabby, midnight blue velveteen, and as Newt moved to retrieve his case from where he'd dropped it, Tina looked around at his sitting room and felt that both this opulent chair and the rather austere rocking chair they'd just left-- dissimilar though they were-- fit perfectly.

Newt's living space was as eclectic as he, and much like his suitcase it seemed to have grown organically. She could tell, from the high inset windows and the sloping ceiling, that his apartment was at the top of the building. In the day, it would be as sunny as any indoor space could muster in London in the winter-- now, it was cozy and warm, the light coming from the hearth and a few colored glass oil lamps set in sconces. The wide-slatted wooden floor was covered in large and varied oriental rugs, not just in this room but in the dining area that joined it. Bookshelves, many of them containing trailing plants, odd instruments, terrariums and aquariums as well as endless volumes on a variety of subjects, covered almost every inch of wall space in the large sitting room. The exception to this was a wide, brick archway that was filled with plain plaster wall. It looked as though someone had filled in a formerly usable doorway, and Tina couldn't imagine why it might have been spared further shelving. She stood, and began to look around herself.

The space, as mismatched and strange though it was, was far more grand than the small apartment she shared with Queenie. Not only was it larger, but the colors were dark and rich and masculine. The wood and textiles and book bindings were of obvious quality, though clearly well-loved. For the first time, Tina felt a bit intimidated by the knowledge that Newt was a scientist and a scholar. Tina wasn't stupid or anything, but her intelligence was in her ability to read people and situations and make sound decisions quickly. Newt's cleverness had something to do with teasing the answers out of prickly questions-- it was patient and methodical and endlessly curious. Everything in this space spoke to a life of research, writing, and cozy contemplation. Tina wondered fleetingly if Newt ever found her dull, or even brutish with her talk of no-maj affairs and her hex-first-ask-questions-later attitude.

Newt, moving slowly as though every movement cost him dearly, crouched and pushed the bulkier side of his suitcase against the walled-off brick archway. It felt unnerving and vulnerable to have Tina in his home-- his real home, not his comparatively sparse travel set-up. Newt gained back some of the shyness he had lost during their weeks traveling, some of the desire to impress that he had had to put away as Tina cared for his wounds and ailments. He couldn't stop himself from looking behind him to make sure she was looking as he opened the case and moved his wand over it.

Tina gasped. The opening of the case expanded like a mouth yawning, filling the edges of the brick archway. She gaped, looking straight ahead and yet also looking down into Newt's suitcase travel kitchen. It was tremendously disorienting. He tapped the brick archway with his wand, and the view changed-- moving down and sideways, as it would if she were a bird flying down and out through a chimney. The kitchen, dining, and bedroom areas of Newt's case crushed themselves to the sides, rather like a bellows closing, and when the movement settled the archway now opened-- not onto a blank wall, but onto the parts of Newt's case where the animals lived. Newt had effectively created a back garden full of beasts for himself, here in an attic apartment in the middle of London. Tina made a little 'oh' sound of wonder, and Newt smiled at the floor, obviously pleased with her reaction. He reached in and around the frame of the arch, into the cool night breeze of his case, and pulled a wrought iron gate in to close off the space.

"I used to let them in here with me. The smaller ones, anyways. But the graphorns got sulky and thought I was playing favorites." He was looking at his pink-slippered toes, embarrassed because he knew the magic he'd just done was impressive, and he didn't want Tina to know that he hoped she'd be appropriately impressed. "I'll just... show you through to the bedroom. That is... Do you want to sleep in the same bed with me? Now that we're here?"

Newt finally swept his eyes up to meet hers, and she nodded. Tina was surprised to find her eyes were damp again, but not with distraught exhaustion as they had been just minutes before. She felt awed by this strange man and his strange love for strange animals. She felt wonder and excitement at the life he had built for himself, and at the idea that he was inviting her into it. She nodded mutely, a small smile playing across her lips, and Newt looked back down at the ground, clearly relieved. 

Tina had never been one to cry easily. She hadn't cried when she'd been dismissed from the auror department, or when Credence was killed, or when Newt had been injured, or when Queenie had whispered to her-- right before she'd left New York earlier that day-- that she had read marriage in Jacob's thoughts and planned to say yes when the time came. Crying was a luxury afforded to pretty, frivolous girls. Tina knew better. 

But here, in this beautiful but alien apartment that was so clearly Newt's domain, she was made aware of the cracks in her practicality. She had, for the first time in a long, long time, no obligations or responsibilities or chores or considerations due to others. Even Newt, still weak and tired from the pox though he was, could fend for himself now that he was on his home turf. Tina felt a weight lift from her shoulders that she hadn't known was there, blissfully adrift with this realization, and her eyes watered yet more. 'Newt must think I'm a fool' she thought to herself, but the thought amused rather than dismayed her.

Newt saw Tina's wet eyes and blanched. "I'm sorry about Theseus. He's always been a bit of an ass." His jaw tightened, but he reached out an open palm, inviting Tina towards him. "This marriage business... Well, it's not real, like he said. And we'll set it right soon enough."

"It's not that. I'm just tired. I don't think I've ever been so tired in my life." Tina's voice was gentle, but she saw a frown of concern cross Newt's face nonetheless. "Let's go to bed, husband."

Newt felt a burning plume of excitement and longing that blossomed in his stomach at being addressed thus. He took Tina's hand and led her through the dining area, down a small hallway, and into his bedroom.

The room looked to Tina, in her exhausted state, like heaven. In keeping with the sitting room, it had a heavy dark rug, dark crown molding over intricate botanical wallpaper, and more than a few books scattered about. Large potted ferns and tropical plants, coupled with floating fairy lights, gave a distinct impression of it being outside, though the room was warm and the ceiling was molded tin tiles. The bed, brass-framed like the one in his case but much larger, stood in a windowed alcove and was dressed in a fluffy white down comforter. Tina sighed with contentment and Newt felt some of his anxiety about introducing her to his space dissipate.

He squeezed her hand and began undressing, stripping down to his pajama pants before folding down the coverlet and climbing into bed. Tina realized she had left her bags in the sitting room and turned.

"I'm sure my feverishness is enough to keep you warm if you wanted to just sleep naked." Newt blushed under his freckles, one arm draped across his toned stomach. 

Tina nodded and obliged. She undressed and crawled into bed next to him as he moved behind her and wrapped her in his arms. She could hear his breath shake behind her. He was nervous. The change of environment and their 'marriage' seemed to have sent them both back to square one despite their intimacies while traveling. The soft sheets and his warm, muscular arm across her stomach were divinity itself, though, and she drifted quickly off to sleep with only a fleeting curiosity about what she would do with herself all day in the coming weeks with no job and no one to care for but Newt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay. I hope to be able to write more often once I have some time off for holidays. And a little more smut coming later today or tomorrow, I think. I really appreciate your feedback, it's been so encouraging to read!


	15. Chapter 15

Newt awoke the next morning before Tina. He spent a few minutes relishing the sublime combination of Tina's soft, warm presence and the sunlight streaming through his familiar curtains into his familiar room. Newt was a creature of habit and routine. While his adventurous lifestyle might seem at odds with this, he had a knack for creating stability even while traveling and chasing down beasts. Center to all of his efforts were the animals themselves, and when fortune allowed him to study them humanely while maintaining the life of a homebody he was very content indeed. 

Newt debated briefly simply lying in bed next to Tina until she woke up. The sun made her mousy hair sparkle with ash and champagne, and he could spend hours memorizing the laugh lines forming around her eyes, the curve of her mouth softened by sleep. But he wanted to have a few of his chores done by the time she woke up, and puttering about would allow him some time to think about this marriage business-- and how best to slake his lust for her now that they did not have a common goal with which to distract themselves.

As he slowly fed the animals, taking extra time to baby them after several days of Tina taking on his duties, Newt catalogued his remaining ailments. His body ached horribly, as though he'd been trampled by an erumpent. His feverishness had largely abated, and while his skin maintained a strange, sylvan tinge of green his spots had largely healed. Thanks to Tina's expert doctoring, the blisters on his face had healed nicely. While the area was still red, he felt confident it would not scar. The dragonfire burn on his shoulder, however, would leave an angry shiny patch. It didn't bother him-- he had worse scars-- and he wasn't the sort to worry over whether or not it would bother Tina.

He finished his rounds and carefully showered, moving the hosed shower nozzle across himself while dragging a sponge across himself with his other hand. It had only been a little over a week since he'd fallen ill, but he thought he could feel where his muscles had withered during his time spent bedridden and eating little. He shaved-- by hand rather than by magic-- and then settled himself into his rocking chair to think.

There were no obligations of married couples in the wizarding world. The ways in which he and Tina conducted themselves in public and in private needn't change much unless they were questioned. But Theseus had been right-- he would have to go and visit his parents for Christmas in three weeks time, and that would be the context during which their sham marriage would be put to the test. He knew, though they had never said it, that his parents thought he would never achieve romantic love. It had never bothered him until now, when he felt immense pressure to prove not only to them for the sake of the lie that allowed Tina to be in England but to himself for the sake of his happiness with Tina-- whatever country they might find themselves in in future.

And how *should* they conduct themselves in private? Though it had been dampened by his illness, Newt's lust for Tina was returning with a vengeance. He longed to taste her, to spend hours watching her delicate sex become pink and moist and swollen under his careful attentions, refusing to let her achieve climax until she was desperate. He wanted her naked and kneeling by his side as he edited his book, waiting patiently for his cock. He imagined her on hands and knees, begging to be filled by him like a creature in heat. If he was honest with himself, he would admit that the sight of her tied to his chair last night was horrifying not just for the actual situation at hand, but for the tantalizing image of her tied to his bed it had evoked. When he allowed his imagination to run wild, Tina; kind, patient, clever, resourceful, funny, Tina; was reduced to little more than a mewling receptacle for his desire. It frightened him, and yet he doubted very much his ability to deny himself much longer-- particularly when she had made her desires for him so clear.

He heard stirring from the bedroom and padded down the hallway. Tina was kneeling on the bed and opening the window to let in a small grey owl and a great deal of chilly winter air. The letter the owl carried was for him, and when she turned, smiling, towards him to hand it off he tried to ignore the way her pale skin puckered in response to the cold, thousands of fine downy hairs standing at attention and her rosey-brown nipples looking particularly delicious. Perhaps his want for her had somehow compounded during is convalescence he thought bitterly.

//Dear Mr. Scamander,

I am pleased to inform you that I have received hundreds of inquiries regarding your magizoological text in the past weeks. If you are amenable, I am willing to double our initial agreed upon commission if the book is ready for publication by the new year, and additionally to increase your percentage of the proceeds by 15%. Please respond with your agreement by next post. 

Yours Sincerely,

Augustus Worme  
Obscurus Books//

"Obscurus Books? Isn't that a little ominous?" Tina asked, reading over his shoulder.

"I suppose it is. I didn't think much of it when he commissioned the work, but now that we know what Grindlewald is after it does seem foreboding." He ran a hand across his freshly shaved jaw. "He's been paying me to research beasts for almost a decade, now, though."

"Have you met this man?" Asked Tina incredulously. Her auror training was making the hairs on the back of her neck prickle in a way that had little to do with the chill in the room. 

"Yes of course. A couple of times. And we correspond somewhat regularly. He has an office in Diagon Ally, there's been no reason for me to question its legitimacy."

Tina had little response to that, so instead changed the subject. "Do you think you can finish the book before the new year?"

"Oh, almost certainly, if I devote a bit of time to it." Newt smiled a bit, clearly enjoying the thought of completing his research and sharing it with the world.

"Can I help you?"

"Of course. I would appreciate you looking over everything before I send it off. And you can, of course, contribute to the section on Peruvian Vipertooths since you observed them with me."

Tina was pleasantly taken aback by his obvious high regard for her ability to contribute to his efforts intellectually. "I'd be happy to, Mr. Scamander. But I was thinking more along the lines of fixing your tea and caring for the creatures and making sure you don't make yourself sick again with the stress. There's not much else for me to do here, and well..." She blushed scarlet at her own innuendo. "... I'm sure I could help you to...relax."

This was very forward indeed for Tina, and Newt found himself overwhelmed with all manner of lascivious images and prurient scenarios.

All sense of decency and restraint was cast aside. Newt brought his eyes to hers and his rough hand to Tina's cheek. He stroked his thumb across her moist bottom lip. "Yes, Miss Goldstein, I believe you could."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This entire fic brought to you by Mallory Ortberg's wonderful and hilarious "Things I've Learned About Heterosexual Female Desire from Decades of Reading".


	16. Chapter 16

"Well?" She asked boldly, "Where do we start?"

"We start with breakfast, I think." He kissed her.

Newt was determined to have a conversation with Tina, at least, about his desires. She had signaled to him that she might welcome them, and he owed her that bravery. Over boiled eggs and buttered toast and strong tea in the small dining room, he chose his words carefully. Tina was swimming in his worn mustard-colored dressing gown, and watching her perched at his table, licking dripping yolk from her hand indecorously like a cat with little self-consciousness, Newt was painfully aware of how precious and singular she was.

They retired to the sitting room after clearing up the breakfast things, and Newt sat sideways on the chaise longue, one arm across the back, feet planted wide apart on the opulent rug. Tina stood awkwardly in front of him, feeling as though she were awaiting instructions.

"Tina, I find you fascinating. Everything about you is beautiful, but especially..." He blushed, losing his footing a bit "...especially when you're..." He fiddled with his cufflink, seemingly fascinated by it, refusing to meet her eyes. "Well, when you're experiencing... pleasure."

It was Tina's turn to blush. She didn't quite know how to respond to this, but it opened up an opportunity to broach a subject that had been gnawing on her for some time now. "I like... experiencing pleasure with you. I want to see you experience pleasure." She dropped to her knees between his legs and he exhaled loudly through his nose.

"Your pleasure is my pleasure, Tina." It was a true enough statement, and he felt little hesitance in sharing it. Now came the tricky part. "Tina, the way I want you scares me. I want you so badly, and so completely, that I'm afraid it might scare you too. You're so brave, and so beautiful, and I want... I want you to give yourself to me."

Tina thought about what he was saying. She thought about the times she'd watched him gain the trust of animals so large and fearsome that they had no incentive not to trample and eat him on the spot. She thought about how she'd watched him care for animals so fragile and fearful that anyone without Newt's otherworldly delicacy and compassion might inadvertently crush or kill them.. And yet Newt Scamander managed it. For Newt, there was triumph and accomplishment in absolute trust, and his creatures trusted him absolutely. She suspected that what he was asking for was the same trust from her. She suspected that he was asking her to let himself test-- but never trespass upon-- that trust. That she could give.

"Newt, you may have of me whatever you like. I'm not afraid of you."

Relief washed across his face.

"Tina, I want you take off that robe and get on all fours, please."

Her eyes widened, but she did as she was told. The rug beneath her hands and knees was softer than expected, and she bowed her head a bit, studying the intricate pattern of intertwined branches, deer, and hunting dogs. He tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around, backside facing him.

She made quite the picture, thought Newt. Her hair fell over her face, her delicate spine was exposed, and the flare of her hips was made prominent by her position. "Down on your elbows, if you please." She paused for a moment, taken aback by his commanding tone, and then complied, her cunt exposed to him. Still he did not dare touch her.

Tina could feel herself growing wet. The exposure to Newt's careful appraisal, the promise of pleasure at his capable hands and-- she had to admit-- the vulnerability of her position were tremendously arousing. She could hear his ragged breath behind her. And then, the slow caress of his calloused hand across the smooth skin of her buttock. His hand was warm and firm. It felt nice. She pushed into it a bit, and Newt chuckled low in his throat.

"Are you comfortable?" He queried.

"Yes."

"Good."

She felt his index finger drag along her slit, and he let out a little rumbling moan at finding her so wet. Again, she pushed back against him, eager for more contact, but he staid her hip with his other hand and withdrew his finger.

He waited several seconds before resuming his explorations, sliding his finger around the perimeter of her moist outer lips. Tina felt her arousal grow, if that was possible, until it was almost painful not to have greater contact where she needed it most. "Please, Newt." She gasped.

He withdrew his hand entirely, both hands now placed on her hips. "You beg so prettily, Tina." His tone was gentle, innocent even, but she could hear the wicked smile his voice. "I would like you to beg some more. What exactly is it you're asking me for?"

"Newt, touch me, please." Her voice was plaintive. "I need... I need to feel you... inside of me. Oh Gods, please, Newt." Tina's cheeks burned. It was humiliating, in a way, to have to negotiate her pleasure like this. She loved it.

Newt brought his index finger to her wet entrance and pushed gently, feeling the taught muscles flutter around his intrusion. A thin sheen of sweat shone on Tina's back, and she keened in response to his finger, now pushing slowly in and out of her slick cunt. He had never seen anything so beautiful. He added a second finger and pushed down, experimentally, on the tiny bundle of internal nerves he knew to be within her. Tina cried out again and dropped her head to her hands which were white-knuckled and clasped as though in prayer.

"Yes, oh Newt, just like that, oh please." She was incoherent as he continued working the spot, her skin growing flushed. But he ignored her aching clit, rubbing his other hand in small soothing circles across her lower back. Tina's leg's shook. Her toes curled. And yet, without the attention she needed on her clit, climax eluded her.

She tried to reposition herself, moving her thighs closed to gain some friction, but Newt gave her backside a swat. "None of that now. There's a good girl."

Newt held her in torment for several minutes, slowing down and easing off when her cries and promises reached a fever pitch and then resuming when they subsided. Finally, when she thought she would surely collapse from the frustrating pleasure of it all, Newt spoke. "I would like to see you come for me, Tina. Would you like that?" She nodded feverishly. She needed release. "I'm sorry, are you trying to tell me that yes, you would like to come?" He was enjoying himself, enjoying having this gorgeous creature squirming, desperate, and at his mercy.

"Yes. Yes, please let me come Newt!" Tina begged, quite beside herself. With that, Newt pressed his thumb into her aching clit, rubbing small circles that mirrored is internal ministrations. Tina screamed, her body convulsing as wave after wave of pleasure engulfed her. Newt's fingers continued to work as she rode out her orgasm. She looked behind her and saw him lick her juices off his fingers with obvious relish. It was a lewd sight, and she felt arousal flare within her once more before he caught her up in his arms, laying a small kiss on her sweaty forehead. 

"You are exquisite, Miss Goldstein." His face was awed, beatific, grateful as he continued to cradle her. He brought her hands to his mouth and kissed them. She could feel his erection on her bottom through his trousers and wiggled a bit, experimentally. Newt groaned and pulled her more tightly against him, his mouth moving to the delicate space behind her ear. He whispered huskily. "Not yet. Only if you're very, very good for me."

It was a game of sorts, Tina knew. After traveling with Newt for several weeks, caring for him at his most defenseless, watching him care for his creatures and for her, she knew that he was gentle to a fault and even fearful of his own animal drives. This game was his way of establishing rules and boundaries, giving himself permission to give in a bit to his desires. But damned if it didn't kindle something fierce and sweet and raw in Tina. She wanted nothing more than to be very, very good for Newt. And she would spend the next couple of weeks, among other things, learning how.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this particular variety of smut is not everyone's cup of tea. But Newt contains multitudes. Feedback greatly appreciated!


	17. Chapter 17

Newt was shaking as he sat down at his writing desk, pulling out inkwell and quill from their respective pigeonholes. Tina, on her knees, willing and compliant and moaning for him, was an image he would not soon forget. He had imagined it many times in the preceding weeks, but always accompanied by alarm bells of shame and guilt. The reality of it-- sweet and intimate and trusting-- was a relief unlike any he had ever known. He could have never anticipated it.

Tina, rather than blanching at his desire to take control, seemed to relish it. Even now, he could hear her singing to herself cheerfully in the shower a muggle jazz song. "Ain't misbehavin', saving all my love for you". She sang off key, and Newt loved her for it.

He was not a virgin. There had been several women after Leta-- silly and insipid, or dull and dour. Cafe waitresses or ministry bureaucrats. No one lasting longer than a few weeks, no one able to tolerate his long-winded enthusiasm for his creatures, no one able to spark in him quite the curiosity that Tina had. His sexual encounters with them had been fumbling and perfunctory, and over all of them hung the pall that was Leta's memory.

With Leta, Newt had never been the one in control. She, half a year older than Newt and beautiful in a way that had granted her passage into the adult world far before her time, always took the lead. She pushed him farther than he wanted to go, stretching his boundaries as easily as she might have walked through a spider web-- and she wasn't the sort to care for spiders. Yet Newt was enthralled by her easy confidence, her persuasive allure. He took a sick pleasure in watching her apply it to others, bending them to her whim. It frightened and fascinated him. And when she turned her attentions to him, he had little option but to bend to the breaking point.

Sexual encounters with Leta were cruel, often bizarre. Even when she cast him in the role of the aggressor, ordering him to hurt her, do unspeakable things to her, it was she who held the reins. In the years since, he had tried to make sense of it. He attempted to imagine some narrative that would explain Leta's mercurial temper, her desire to have him stripped of his dignity, bleeding and isolated and indebted to her for every human kindness she would allow him to experience. Newt was but a pawn in a strange psychodrama of Leta's-- one which she would not or could not share with him. More often than not, it was he who bore pain and humiliation at her hands.

*"What if I left you hear for your brother to find?" It was early morning, still dark, and they were in the cold Hogwarts owlery. He had allowed Leta to bind his wrists to the bottom of a post, and was kneeling on the fetid, straw-covered floor. She had granted him the dignity of his robes covering his bare ass, but his trousers were around his knees and his cock wept onto them as her wand vibrated cruelly against his prostate. He had been in this position for he didn't know how long and, she reminded him, he had initiated it by asking her to meet him and see the barn owl nestlings. When bidden, he had taken off his trousers and handed over his wand. He had begged for this. Tears of humiliation prickled in his eyes and Leta laughed. When she lifted up her robes and ground his face into her cunt, he was grateful for the distraction from his self-admonishments.*

Newt shook his head, trying to rid himself of the memory. Traveling these past weeks, Newt had become terrified that his animalistic urges towards Tina were somehow related to his early experiences. Perhaps Leta had infected him, and he couldn't be content until Tina was not only his alone, but no longer her own entity. Perhaps he, like Leta, would knock down every barrier Tina put up demanding more and more until there was nothing left. 

But whereas Leta had taken from Newt far beyond what he was able to offer, Tina gave freely. Newt was aware of Tina as an equal, strong and self-assured and funny. To take from her in the way Leta had him was unthinkable. It would ruin what was alluring about her in the first place.

Instead, Newt's desires for Tina were rooted in curiosity. He was determined to discover, through careful observation and scientific inquiry, just exactly how to drive her to the edge. He wanted to witness Tina experiencing every pleasure the world had to offer, the same way he wanted to witness baby dragons learning how to breathe fire and fly. And now that she had indicated her willingness... Sex didn't even begin to cover the plans he had for her. He would travel the world with her, explore every corner, try every dish, just for the pleasure of watching her delight. 

Those were plans for another time, though. Today, he must write to his publisher, and get a head start on his book. In the afternoon, he would take Tina to Diagon Ally-- while New York had wizarding enclaves, there was no where magic was as ubiquitous as it could be in London. In the evening, and in the coming weeks... he had plans for Tina. 

Tina washed herself carefully, still a bit jelly-legged after Newt's overwhelming display. She would be lying if she said she'd never fantasized about a man who would take charge. She remembered several contraband books at Ilvermorny-- full of pirates, rakes, and rogues plundering pleasure as they would gold. Those had always been her favorite romance stories, though, practical as she was she knew that no real-world relationship could look like that. In the real world, one had to worry about families and money and careers and chores-- any feasible relationship would have to factor in those realities.

Giving herself to Newt, though, seemed easy. With Newt, she had had the most exciting adventure of her professional life (she felt a pang of sadness and guilt for Credence here but brushed it away). Chores with Newt involved glittering ashwinders and tickling bowtruckles. Hell, even family came naturally-- they were married now, and it hadn't taken any effort on their part. She smirked at the thought. What if they made the marriage official, she wondered bemusedly. What would a whole lifetime with Newt Scamander have to offer? 

As Tina dried herself and dressed, her initial distaste for their sham marriage, her guilt over leaving Queenie so recklessly, even her lingering shame over Credence's death began to give way to a giddy excitement. For the next three months, she would be Newt's wife. She would explore London and care for fantastical creatures and a man she knew she was coming to love. And, she thought with a blush, she would spend as much time as possible working to earn his trust sexually-- and enjoying being at the mercy of his apparently prodigious lustful appetite.


	18. Chapter 18

"So how do I be good?" They were eating a simple supper that Tina had prepared after an afternoon spent exploring the shops in Diagon Ally. 

Tina had been amazed by the concentration of wizards and magical beings, at the diversity of magical wares for sale. Newt had bought items for healing potions for his animals in a cramped apothecary. Tina had bought several books in Flourish and Blotts on the history of organized defensive magic (early wizarding settlements had relied on ragtag militias before wizarding governing bodies had been established with auror departments) and English wizarding in general. She had little to do over the coming months, she might as well spend that time educating herself. She had thought to buy a book on magical creatures, to better be able to work in the case with Newt. She felt silly when she remembered that of course there wasn't one, which was why Newt was buying armloads of ink and parchment.

They had done their shopping slowly, the busy hoards of Christmas shoppers parting around them, not only so that Tina could take in the strange, anachronistic chaos that was wizarding London, but because Newt was still quite weak and fatigued. He put his arm around her shoulders as they walked, and tried very hard to maintain the position as a sign of affection rather than a blatant attempt to make her carry half his weight. She had laughed at him, and he had laughed at himself. Despite Newt's discomfort and weariness, they took time to do frivolous things. They bought packets of glittering sugar flowers and peppermint humbugs. They had rich hot chocolate spiked with brandy in The Leaky Cauldron, and Newt told her about coming to Diagon Ally as a boy: buying his wand, the excitement and apprehension he had felt in preparing to start school, desperate to make friends. Tina imagined Newt as a child-- all dirty fingernails and skinned knees and jars full of tadpoles-- and felt a protective affection for the boy he had been.

"How do you be good?" It was an odd question, and inartfully phrased. Newt wondered if he had misheard.

"Yes. I would like to..." (Tina turned scarlet, but soldiered on) "...make love with you and you told me I'd have to be very very good for you. I want to know what that entails."

Newt sat back in his chair and looked at her, fingers toying with the stem of his wineglass. She was sitting forward, elbows on the table, full of embarrassment and eagerness.

"Tina, before we have this conversation, I need to tell you something important. I told you about Leta before, but there's... there's a part that I left out. I need you to understand why I did it."

And with that, he told her everything. He left out the graphic details of "what", focusing instead on the "how"... How Leta had taken advantage of his isolation and his desperate need of companionship, how he had felt ashamed and indebted, how he wasn't able to maintain perspective while in her sway leading to his expulsion. Most of all, how he was frightened that he might be capable of visiting equal cruelty on someone else. The ebullient cheer of their day-- alcohol and sweets and Christmas in the air, Tina treating him with affection in a public place where anyone could see, laughing at the antics of the creatures over a delicious homecooked meal-- had given Newt the courage and the catalyst to lay bare all, despite the pain it caused him. His voice cracked, and his hands shook, and when he looked up at Tina at his stories conclusion his eyes were wet. He was surprised to find that hers were too.

Tina remembered the child Newt had described to her earlier that day; skinny, freckled, and serious in a way that worried his parents. He had described for her a very lonely childhood, and how hopeful he had been upon entering Hogwarts that he would finally know a kindred spirit. That Leta had seen that hope and used it to make Newt so wretched made her sick to her stomach. She felt hatred hot in her chest for Leta, and a strong urge to hold Newt close to her chest.

"Newt, I'm so sorry."

"I'm alright now. But you must promise me... If ever you feel frightened, if ever I go too far you will tell me at once. And if ever you feel trespassed upon, or lonely when you are in my company you will leave me."

Tina was startled. "I promise, Newt."

He shot her a rare piercing gaze, gauging her sincerity. Her eyes were wide, and she was worrying her lip with her teeth. She looked so sweet. Among the other emotions swirling in his chest, Newt felt desire for the earnest and kind woman sitting across from him.

Newt took a sip of his wine, breathing in through is nose, collecting himself. "Excellent, well, that's a very large part of being very good for me."

"And the rest of it?"

"There's not much to it, really. You've seen that I am a fair master to all of my creatures." His cheeks colored and he blinked rather rapidly... playing this role was simultaneously so natural it felt like sinking into a warm bath, and so foreign he could not shake the feeling that he must be doing it wrong. "Like any other of my creatures, you will allow me to take care of you and to observe you... To discover what you like and what you need. Unlike my other creatures, part of that exploration will involve discovering how best you can serve me. It may take patience. You may have to... get your hands and knees dirty. In the end, we will have at the very least advanced our understanding of one another. Does that sound agreeable?" Newt's eyes twinkled, but he was not looking at her face.

Tina's mouth was dry. Other parts of her were... decidedly less so. She nodded-- more vigorously than she had intended to-- and Newt looked up at her. "I need to hear you say it." He said with a quiet growl.

"Yes! Yes, I agree."

"Good. In that case, I will clean up in here, and then I will join you in the bedroom. I would like you to be naked when I get there, and I would like to see you kneeling with your hands on your knees.

With great finality, he stood and strode into the kitchen leaving Tina to scramble down the hallway to the bedroom wondering if she'd ever been more aroused in her life.

She removed her blouse and trousers quickly, and then folded them neatly on top of her still-unpacked trunk. Then she knelt at the foot of the bed as told, and waited for Newt to join her. Anticipation made her body feel electric, and she felt her cunt grow moist with excitement.

After 5 minutes, there was still no sign of Newt. Tina strained her ears and heard clattering and water running. The bastard was washing up by hand. Tina waited. And waited. After what seemed like ages, Newt entered the room and closed the door gently behind him. 

When he saw her, his eyes softened and he gave her a lopsided grin, but his demeanor remained business like. "Part your knees for me please, Tina, but remain kneeling." She did as she was told and he crouched in front of her, running his first two fingers through her slick folds. Tina whimpered a bit and tried to grind against them, but he stood. "You like waiting for me, don't you Tina?"

She nodded silently, but he caught her chin in his other hand, tilting her face up to his. "Don't you?" He asked again with more emphasis.

"Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes... Sir?"

"There's a good girl. Open your mouth."

When she did as he had bidden, Newt inserted his fingers still wet with her juices. Tina cottoned on quickly and cleaned them enthusiastically, sucking his fingers into her mouth and tasting on them her arousal for him. She looked up at him through her lashes and his eyes were heavy-lidded and hazy. He withdrew his fingers and stroked her hair thoughtfully, reaching into the pocket of his waistcoat and withdrawing a paper packet.

"Open."

She opened her mouth again, and this time he placed one of the delicate sugared violet's they'd purchased that afternoon on her tongue. She closed her mouth and felt it melt. It tasted heavenly. She wanted him to touch her again.

"Tina, I don't believe I told you that you could close your mouth. That sort of behavior will have consequences." She rolled her eyes at him, but he gave her a stern look. "Open."

He placed another candy on her tongue and she closed her mouth again defiantly, the sugar crumbling between her tongue and the roof of her mouth deliciously. Newt's eyes flashed and he crouched down again, slipping his fingers into her folds and finding her even wetter than before. He leaned forward, mouth coming to her ear. "For all your talk of wanting to be good, Miss Goldstein, you are being terribly naughty. One might think that you wanted to be punished. " He nipped at her earlobe, fingers still playing gently across her clit, and she moaned wantonly. It felt so good to be touched.

Newt stood again."Tina, I want to watch you touch yourself again." 

She nodded up at him, and when he arched her eyebrow she amended with her voice. "Yes, Sir." She would comply as long as she was getting her way.

She brought the fingers of both hands to her cunt and began pleasuring herself in earnest. This was not a show as it had been when she'd laid on the foot of his bed and he'd watched her. This was about her desperate need to come. Her fingers worked in and out of herself, her other hand making small circles around her clit. She gasped and bucked against her hands wildly. Newt stood above her, stance wide, hand on his hip, enjoying the wanton display and waiting.

As Tina's thighs began to clench, as a flush bloomed across her chest that told him her orgasm was imminent, Newt withdrew his wand. "Incarcerus!" Tina found her hands suddenly bound to the brass bedframe above her head. The rope was soft, and her bindings were not tight, but he had tied her right before she had been able to achieve orgasm. She let out a frustrated little roar and Newt chucked her under the chin. "That, Miss Goldstein, is consequences. Open."

She opened her mouth, and he placed a candy on her tongue. This time, she continued to hold her mouth open, allowing the melting sweet to trickle down her throat. "Good girl." Newt was undoing his trousers. 

His cock was large, framed by a thatch of wirey copper hairs, and painfully hard. Tina's eyes widened, but her mouth remained open. Newt smiled, stroking himself a few times. "Are you alright?" She nodded, and he smiled. He stepped towards her, and she leaned forward eager to take him into her sweet little mouth. Newt allowed her to do so, cradling the back of her head gently as she licked and sucked inexpertly all up and down his length. It felt divine, and staring into large brown eyes he knew he wouldn't last long.

Newt came, when he did, with a shout. Tina dutifully swallowed his seed, and grinned up at him. "You don't have any of those peppermint humbugs in your pocket, do you?"

Newt laughed, breathlessly, and withdrew one with shaking hands, placing it on her proffered tongue. He sunk to his knees and kissed her deeply, untying her hands with his rather than with magic. Her hands came to his shoulders and he looked at her, this precious woman whom he knew that he loved. "Thank you, Tina. I look forward to returning the favor... Tomorrow, since you were being so unrepentantly defiant."

Tina groaned with frustration. Newt kissed her on the nose teasingly, and they crawled into bed together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here's this. As always, let me know what you think, it's very helpful to read your feedback. Merry Christmas Eve!


	19. Chapter 19

Tina was roused by a nightmare the next morning. In it, she brought soup and read fairy stories to an ailing Creedence. When she looked at him from the corners of her eyes, she could see something dark and menacing about him. His edges crackled and his face was distorted with rage. She dared not turn her back on him.

Tina blinked into the grey predawn light, coming back to herself. When, after several minutes, she turned over she was calm enough to feel a stirring coil of desire in her stomach as she watched the lithe expanse of Newt's muscled torso rise and fall with his breath. She examined his scarring shoulder carefully, and thought to herself that she'd need to ask him for the stories behind all of his scars someday soon. 

The night before had been amazing. She hadn't even come and it was easily one of her most memorable sexual encounters. Tina couldn't help herself-- she lifted the coverlet and peeked at his cock. It was hard again. She wondered what would happen if she grasped it, or scooted down to wake Newt up with her mouth. Would that be "being good", or would that be taking something for which she hadn't been given permission? She could imagine pleasurable outcomes either way. She was enjoying this game.

Tina reached down and ever so lightly dragged her fingers from the base to the tip of Newt's cock. It was warm and velvet to her touch. Newt stirred in his sleep. She wrapped her had around it and rubbed her thumb over the slit, catching the pre-cum that was gathering there and watching his face intently. Newt's brows knit and his lips parted plaintively. Tina tightened her grip and pumped her hand slowly, feeling the glide of his foreskin over his hard length. Newt's eyes cracked and he turned his face towards her. "Tina...." he rasped. She smiled a little wicked smile at him.

Newt brought his arm across his body to cup her face in his hand and kiss her deeply as she continued to slowly stroke his cock. He pulled his face back and looked at her thoughtfully.

In one swift movement, Newt turned towards her, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her up so that she was straddled across him, sitting just below his cock. Tina, also naked, stilled. Newt looked up at her with a face she couldn't place.

"Tina, would you.... could I be inside you please?"

This was a different Newt than the one who had been so in control the night before. He was sweet; nervous, even. It didn't stop Tina from phrasing her assent as a plea.

"Yes. Please, Newt."

That was all he needed. One hand on her rib cage and the other on his cock, Newt lifted Tina and steadied her as she impaled herself slowly on his length. He threw his head back and bit his lip. Her tight wetness was exquisite, better than anything he could have imagined. His large, calloused hands came to rest on her hips as she caught her breath, adjusting to him. 

After several seconds, they began to move together. Their love making was slow, deliberate, each enjoying the others gasps and strangled expletives. Tina, bracing herself against Newt's chest, felt clumsy at times. Newt feared he would come at any second. 

Tina felt so good around Newt, and her small breasts and flushed face above him were beautiful-- angelic, even, in the weak winter morning sunlight of his bedroom. Newt pulled her down to him, his mouth finding her nipple and the thumb of one hand finding her clit. Tina moaned in earnest, grinding herself against him, carding her fingers through her hair. She came with a small cry, biting his shoulder and clenching around him. That was Newt's undoing. He grabbed Tina's hips and flipped her over onto her back, hooking his elbow under one of her knees and thrusting furiously into her. Tina felt her first orgasm spill into a second, less refined one. "Tina!" Newt cried out her name as he came, spilling his seed into her.

They stayed where they were for several minutes, breathing hard, stroking one another, Newt making uncharacteristic eye contact trying to gauge Tina's emotions. 

Tina, in her pleasure dazed state, gave him a reassuring smile when she finally realized what he was waiting for. She was rewarded by a small grin which crinkled Newt's eyes. He stroked her hair and kissed her forehead and rolled off of her.

Newt summoned a flannel, wet and warmed it with his wand, and knelt between Tina's legs to clean her. Her cheeks flamed at the intimacy of his ministrations, but when he kissed the damp curls just above her clit, she felt certain that there was almost nothing so intimate that she wouldn't be willing to try it with Newt. 

"I thought I had to be good for that" Tina mused, some cheek in her voice.

"You are good. You're the best." It was a funny thing to hear from a man peering up from her crotch and Tina laughed throatily. 

Newt blushed, self conscious now. "Was that alright for you?"

"Let's just say that if you won't have any trouble keeping me obedient if that's my reward for good behavior. No more unrepentant defiance from me." Tina winked at him. It was brazen, and Newt loved it.

He cleaned himself quickly and lay back down beside her, pulling her into his arms and pulling the covers back over them. They slept for several hours more, and dreamt of nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the DREADFULLY long hiatus and the short chapter. The combination of chronic illness and post-election stress makes even something as low-impact as writing too much sometimes. I hope to post more regularly while I may, and also to get back to the plot soon-- though I do so enjoy the smut.
> 
> ETA: Also, I'm an old lady and I don't understand technology or fan culture or anything. Can someone explain to me how I might go about soliciting requests? Also, tumblr just in general?


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